Nov 18

Nov 18 You Make It Easy, by Air

Relax and let yourself delicately drift away

This is a song from one of my all time favourite chill-out albums, Moon Safari, by French band, Air. When thinking about a song that my friend might find soothing at this point in their cancer treatment, something from this album was a natural choice. I could have selected just about any song from the album - all of it is good - but I settled on “You make it easy” because there is something very intimate about the way the vocals are projected that I thought would cut through the pain, sickness and awfulness my friend was going through. Released in 1998 and reaching No. 6 in the UK album chart that year, it is an album full of music that wraps itself around and you and transports you to another sound world.

How do they do that?

Throughout “You make it easy” there is a feeling of lightness and relaxation, so I was interested to think about how that has been achieved in the music.

The song begins, not with light and air, but a slow motion tidal wave, like something from a different planet (makes me think of a scene from the film, Interstellar). It’s other-worldly character immediately lifts us out of today. The instruments are used with a delicacy and lightness of touch - rhythm and motion in the song comes, very gently, from electronic versions of a woodblock, maracas and rhythm acoustic guitar at various times. Very soft, very subtle.

One of the cleverest techniques for me is the way the bass line soars up to a higher pitch than normal during the chorus. Is it really a bass line then, if it’s not always in the bass? Well, it has all the characteristics of a bass line: it grounds the harmonic structure and smooths the transition from one chord to the next. But by lifting the ends of its phrases to a higher pitch, it entwines more easily around Beth Hirsch’s breathy vocal, further adding to the overall lightness of the piece..

Towards the end, a reminiscence of the opening tidal wave appears, but converts to a rush of air. This is then musically represented by the chromatic scale (using every black and white key) in the electronic keyboard that glides up and down in a delicate swooshing motion. The piece drifts away on the half whispered lyric ‘Let me fall in love.” Ahh…happy sigh.

Hope you enjoy it or feel inspired to listen to something new today.

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