Talkie Walkie by Air

Talkie Walkie, Air's third album, came out on Virgin on January 26, 2004, and found the Versailles duo of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel working with producer Nigel Godrich on electronica at its most hushed and dreamy. After the moonlit lounge of Moon Safari and the Virgin Suicides score, this one simply floats.

"Surfing on a Rocket" is the zippy one, all space-age bounce, and later turned up in the game FIFA Football 2005; "Cherry Blossom Girl" drifts past like a daydream, and one recorded version of it features Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. "Alpha Beta Gaga" started out as something meant for Madonna's American Life, and "Alone in Kyoto" had already graced the Lost in Translation soundtrack. Virgin said it shipped 405,000 copies outside France in its first two weeks, critics were mostly won over, and it took a 2005 prize in the electronic, groove and dance album category.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.