Moon Safari

“Moon Safari,” the debut studio album by the French electronic music duo Air, was released on 16 January 1998 by Source and Virgin Records.

Critically acclaimed, “Moon Safari” is acknowledged for shaping the emerging downtempo music style. By February 2012, it had sold 386,000 copies in the United States.

Review scores from various sources were generally positive. Alexis Petridis in Mixmag described it as a “superbly inventive” album creating a sophisticated soundworld. NME’s John Mulvey praised Air’s grasp of melody and noted their fearless use of Vocoder. Entertainment Weekly’s Ethan Smith found Air’s Gallic irony a refreshing addition to the occasional resemblance to Everything but the Girl. Brent DiCrescenzo from Pitchfork likened the music to various scenarios, calling it romantic despite its cheekiness.

Accolades include being voted the best album of the year by The Face and Select. It featured in the top 10 lists of Spin, Melody Maker, NME, and Mojo. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 93 on their list of the best albums of the 1990s. In a retrospective review, John Bush of AllMusic praised “Moon Safari” for delivering the emotional power of great dance music while pushing the boundaries of electronica. The album was included in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” and ranked number 68 in Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000.

The influence of “Moon Safari” extended to Dave Depper of Death Cab for Cutie, who recreated the entire album for his cover album released in November 2021.