4. Air, Playground Love
French duo Air took the world by quiet storm in 1998 with their Moon Safari album. Aided by flashy singles Sexy Boy and Kelly, Watch The Stars!, the moody-ish French duo were adored by critics and loved by Eurotrash enthusiasts everywhere.
Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel followed up Moon Safari by scoring The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut. The score was comprised of haunting instrumentals in the style of Moon Safari’s slower numbers, in addition to a track based around a speech from the film. And there was Playground Love, the single, all whispery vocals and the the most deliciously cheesy romantic horns since Careless Whisper.
If you haven’t gotten the gist of my millennial listening habits yet, in 2000 I was really into the weird cross between adult contemporary and electronica that was bubbling under the surface of, of all things, modern rock radio. Porcelain, Playground Love, and even She’s A Millionaire could easily all fit on some sort of late-night chillout mix together.
These days I don’t listen to Air so much, though I have liked all their albums bar 2001′s awkward 10,000 Hz Legend. Maybe I’m bitter, or something, but I don’t get quite as swept away by the schmaltz the way that I used to. Still, this song is beautiful, in the way that it delicately straddles the line between romantic and ridiculous.
The Virgin Suicides is also one of my favorite movies. The record-burning scene and the gut-churningly awkward basement party are two of my favorite things ever committed to celluloid. So I might be partial to this song–and to its very clever video–more than some, but I don’t know how you could not be totally enamored with the clash between the sax breaks and the vocals, lovingly guest-mumbled by Gordon Tracks.
(And, as if the song weren’t gushingly romantic enough, consider that Tracks–an alias of Phoenix singer Thomas Mars–met Sofia Coppola when he was recording the vocals of the song, and now they have a kid together! How adorable is that?!)
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