Messrs Dunckel and Godin are developing their sound in a good way; they haven't really dropped their sense of atmosphere, rather, subsuming it to serve the songs rather than the other way around. What they have done with their latest effort is develop a sense of grim humour about proceedings. The lead single "Radio #1" takes the piss out of goth wannabes, "How Does It Make You Feel?" couples a pining MacinTalk with a seventies MOR chorus, and "Wonder Milky Bitch" is just plain weird in a sexy way. For the first few seconds of "Lucky and Unhappy", I thought I had slipped on the new Orbital album by mistake, since the opening bass pulse reminded me of Orbital's "Doctor Who" cover, but not for long.

It's tempting to compare this with the robotoretro of Daft Punk's Homework, particularly with "How Does It Make You Feel", but really, Air aren't as uptight about the situation. The two instrumentals are also quite good, "Radian" starting out almost Dead Can Dance-like before entering more familiar territory and "Caramel Prisoner" performing the honours as the melancholy lead-out track.

So, perhaps not as startling as Moon Safari when that came out, but it's good news if you enjoyed the subsequently released Premiers Symptomes retrospective and The Virgin Suicides OST, but wish they'd just get some more coherent songs out of their sketches. They have.