Air: Pocket Symphony (2LP, coloured vinyl) [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This coloured 2LP set spreads Air's fourth album over four sides in a gatefold jacket. Nigel Godrich produced it, Bob Ludwig mastered it, and it debuted at No. 40 on the Billboard 200.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Coloured vinyl
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

The phrase "pocket symphony" was coined in the 60s to describe "Good Vibrations," and Air borrowed it for a record that fits a whole orchestra's worth of feeling into small, intimate songs. Nicolas Godin had been studying Japanese instruments with an Okinawan master, so the koto and the three-string shamisen drift through the album alongside the duo's pianos, Rhodes and vintage synths.

"Space Maker" opens in a slow, string-lit glow, "Once Upon a Time" rides a beat from Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, and "Mer du Japon" is a gentle, motorik daydream. Pulp's Jarvis Cocker drops in for the wry, wobbly "One Hell of a Party," and The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon sings on "Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping." Joby Talbot arranged the strings, and Xavier Veilhan made the artwork.

It's the most hushed and late-night of Air's albums, which makes it ideal for the moment the party's over and someone has to put on the last record. In our experience, that someone is usually the one who brought this.

Also at Kops: more Air on vinyl · browse Electronic

Listen

On Virgin / Parlophone, a reissue of the 2007 album.