Album Review: Nicolas Godin - Concrete And Glass

Nicolas Godin (of French lounge royalty, Air) claims Concrete And Glass was inspired by buildings, but most of the ten chansons here sound comfortably in a low orbit, without a rigid structure in sight. 

Fans of Air’s genre-defining 1998 debut Moon Safari will coo in delight at the return of the vocoder, a device not actually used by Godin or Air since those sessions. A carousel of guest vocalists (Cola Boyy, Kirin J Callinan, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor…) keep things mostly floating in pop music bubbles, until the album shifts to an industrialised timbre. The Border glides with steely determination across mile-high windows, as does Turn Right Turn Left, both songs introduced by vocoder, before Cité Radieuse offers an opportunity for contemplation of whatever structure has drifted into view.