Talkie Walkie

Talkie Walkie is the third studio album by French electronic music duo Air, released on 26 January 2004 by Virgin Records.

History

A recorded version of "Cherry Blossom Girl" featured the lead singer of the american band Mazzy Star, Hope Sandoval. "Alpha Beta Gaga" was originally recorded for use in Madonna's 2003 studio album American Life. As of November 2006, Talkie Walkie had sold 161,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album shipped 405,000 copies outside France within two weeks of its release, according to Virgin Records.

Use in media

"Alone in Kyoto" was included on the soundtrack to the 2003 film Lost in Translation, and "Run" was used in both the Veronica Mars episode "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner" and the 2004 French film Lila Says, and "Surfing on a Rocket" was featured in the game FIFA Football 2005.

Critical reception

Talkie Walkie received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on 29 reviews. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called the album "excellent" and commented that Air "return to what they do best: elegantly moody soundtrack music for imaginary films." NME reviewer Piers Martin commented, "It is light and fluffy, of course, but tender and romantic, synthetic and soulful, too. It sounds, effortlessly, new and different, fresh and focused, clean and Zen, no doubt the outcome of Godin and Dunckel's decision to play and programme all the instruments and perform all the vocals on the record themselves in Paris without any external assistance...". Praise was given to the subtle touch producer Nigel Godrich and string arranger Michel Colombier presumably brought to the album at its final stage, and the more personal and tighter songwriting.

Pitchfork named Talkie Walkie the 20th best album of 2004, and later placed it at number 191 on its list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Talkie Walkie.

Musicians

• Malik Mezzadri – flute (track 2)
• Jessica Banks – additional vocals (track 2)
• Brian Reitzell – ride cymbal (track 6)
• Jason Falkner – bass (track 6)
• Lisa Papineau – additional vocals (tracks 6, 9)
• Joey Waronker – percussion (tracks 6, 9)
• Michel Colombier – piano (track 9); string arrangements

Technical

• Air – production
• Nigel Godrich – additional recordings, production, mixing
• Darrell Thorp – mixing assistance (all tracks); street sounds recording (track 8)
• Bob Ludwig – mastering

Artwork

• Richard Prince – cover art
• Aaron Klein – technical assistance
• Claude Gassian – cover photo
• Jenna Felling – interior photos
• Marc Teissier du Cros – polaroids
• Roger Gorman – design

Charts

Certifications and sales

Notes