Air Traffic : Fractured Life

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/airtrafficfracturedlife.jpg" alt=" " />Great Britain’s evocative, rollicking Air Traffic fly across the pond with the U.S. release of their debut LP, <i>Fractured Life</i>. ...
7.6 Astralwerks
2008 

 Great Britain’s evocative, rollicking Air Traffic fly across the pond with the U.S. release of their debut LP, Fractured Life. The four boys from Bournemouth were a hit late last year on EMI, with a number of charting singles that stuck in English ears.  Now Astralwerks brings their Fractured Life to the States, a cockney-ed, cock-eyed mix of charm and emotion.  While sometimes it plays a little too simple, a little too emo, Air Traffic is something you can’t help but love.

The American release of Fractured Life starts with the special ‘bonus’ song, “Come On”, not found on the original U.K. release (British fans, not to worry – you can download it for free on the band’s MySpace page).  This slow, big, epic opens Life on a grander note, but there’s a definite hook in the anthemistic progression.  While good, in some ways it’s a bit misleading as a leadoff track, not quite representative of the four singles that are to follow.

Of the four, maybe the most fun is the oldest, “Just Abuse Me”.  The dance hall keys that singer/keyboardist/guitarist Chris Wall display throughout much of Life probably don’t get any better than on this fun, catchy jive.  While “Charlotte” was the band’s first hit in Britain, in some ways it’s the weakest single, a little too emo, a little too pop-punk; however, it still has a nice drive, hooks, and finishing chorus line sing-along of, “Your face / My place!”  Wall goes in a different direction with the other two singles, playing sad and heartfelt – but does it well.  The darker, more haunting “Shooting Star” could be emo, but instead is just evocative and effective in its press.  Most recent single “No More Running Away” is touching with its emotion, with lovely soft marching drums from drummer David Ryan Jordan.

Unfortunately, Air Traffic really mined the best of Fractured Life when it came to their singles: the only other piece on the rest of the record that truly matches up, the driving pop mixed with relaxed, rhythmic cool of “Never Even Told Me Her Name”, headlined its own EP.  The stripped piano of “Empty Space” has a bit too much of the ‘ballad’ in it, while the stripped-to-big title track can be a little forced at times.  The strongest sad non-single is “I Can’t Understand”, with its wistful, carrying beauty, though the build-and-crash piano of “Time Goes By” has a particularly effective chorus.  The dance hall piano progression of the following “I Like That” never quite builds enough to live up to its promise, but there’s a catchy mix of guitar scratch and strum on “Get In Line”.

With their obvious accents and Anglo-Saxon attitudes, one might think Air Traffic is a strictly British phenomenon.  But they’ve already been hitting up the Continent – a place far more prejudiced against merry ol’ England than America ever has been.  Look for Fractured Life to be filling U.S. skies any day now.

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