Jarre is back?

Back in 2011 I lamented on an inexorable decline in the quality of Jean-Michel Jarre's music. The album "Electronica I" was a step in the right direction, but didn't really do much to dissuade me of this belief. The second instalment of "Electronica" continued this slight upturn with my dream collaboration of Jarre and Pet Shop Boys finally becoming a reality in the brilliant track "Brick England".

I found the subsequent appearance of "Oxygene 3" surprising but the content was unremarkable. It was something if a 'vanilla' album to my ears. Inoffensive, but without a great deal new to say. Whilst we can all be thankful it wasn't another "Teo and Tea", "Oxygene 3" didn't exactly return Jarre to the peaks of his halcyon days either.

And now we have the corresponding 'vanilla' instalment of my favourite Jarre album "Equinoxe". "Equinoxe Infinity" is clearly a new work that pays very little (if any) reference to the original 1978 album other than in name (and some rain effects). In fact, I can hear more sonic references to "Oxygene" and "Magnetic Fields" in there than anything else. However, the reuse of the "Equinoxe" title does give Jarre and the record label a chance to sell us recordings we already own.

Jarre's studio albums make for a mixed bag. Happily we seem to be recovering from the lows of 10 years ago.

The opening movement "The Watchers" is quite superb with sweeping Yamaha CS80 horns and brooding storm effects reminicent of the "Bladerunner" soundtrack. "Flying Totems" follows and introduces more rhythmical elements whilst "Robots Don't Cry" resurrects the "Oxygene" Minipops to good effect. The previously released "Coachella Opening" is now rebadged and presented as the eighth movement and "Don't Look Back" brings us as close to the source material as we're going to get. The only place the album fails is the cheese of "Infinity" and the less than convincing "If the Wind Could Speak". Overall it's a solid 6 to 7 out of 10.