The bedroom pop wizard returns to his trademark junkshop electronics-meet-the-Beatles sound and adds in soft rock and electronic influences along the way.
It's a neat trick that Air began their career with a trip to the moon via Moon Safari and returned to it with this expanded version of their score to Georges Méliès' 1912 sci-fi classic. While the duo doesn't attempt to make this music sound like it was recorded on wax cylinder, many of the cues have a stateliness that suggest a much earlier era as they nod to the traditions of sci-fi scores.
Following an album of sleepy covers and her 1998 breakthrough Moon Pix, Chan Marshall amplifed the more idiosyncratic elements of her songwriting on this dynamic and emotionally charged album. More charged in its subtleties than her noisy early material and more nakedly sad than her already crushing back catalog, You Are Free finds Marshall at her creative peak.