Sometimes I wonder to myself if the exciting, fun electronica of the late 90s only sounded better than the stuff coming out today because then we were all younger and it was pretty much a new sound, which always sounds better when our brains are experiencing something new. But when I popped in Air Bureau's Forever Love, I concluded that the sense of surreal energy could be repeated even to these aged auditory senses. Outside of Electronic States of America, this Swedish duo currently configures the early Daft Punk/Basement Jaxx boppy party sound better than anyone, including the said groups that seem not to possess themselves anymore.
Unfortunately, if you judge a record by the first track, Forever Love starts out with one of those kitschy crap songs that does the overdone lyrically clever trick of replacing 'fuck' with 'funk' and leaves you saying, 'Great. That's never been done before." But luckily "Wanna get funked!" is only 2 minutes long and after that gets into a stellar album of groovy dance pop. Thus, "Get us high" is the shoulda-been-opening-track and an instantly likable little house number in the vein of Tortured Soul or Brand New Heavies.
And that feel is repeated in the equally infectious cuts that make up the rest of the album, the only major variance being the task of lead vocals alternating between a few guest singers, both female and male. Which leaves us with not much more for us to say about Forever Love except that is a treat throughout and is maybe the last great record of 2006.
