Air's Nicolas Godin and Jean Benoit Dunckel burst onto the international music scene with the release of their space-pop debut Moon Safari (1998). Their debut album would go on to achieve endless replays in lifestyle TV programs, many attempts at imitation, and a place in Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the Nineties:
"Moon Safari, was a truly obsessive hommage to easy listening, a sublime Eurocheese omelet. They built their music out of classic Sixties French schlock: bongos, castanets, vintage electric piano, dream-weaver synths and shag-carpet organ straight from the soundtracks of movies like Un Homme et Une Femme."
"Sexy Boy" is one of the more accessible and pop-leaning tracks on Moon Safari, which is generally regarded as a classic in the 'chillout music' genre. Paul SchrodtSlant's sums up Air's apparently effortless appeal succintly:
"Air’s name is almost appallingly appropriate. Every sound on the album [...] lushly falls into place, escalates, and then dissipates into some kind of slickly produced ether. It’s not exactly deep, but the genius of Godin and Benoit is how meticulously they conjure a totally new universe. The keyboard flights of fancy in “La Femme d’Argent” give way to the grungier synths of “Sexy Boy” and Hirsch yearning “to be held and understood” on “You Make It Easy,” as the song sends her off on a wispy breeze. At the same time that it’s space-y and breathless, it’s also organic and downbeat; at the same time that it’s nostalgic, it’s also clearly planted in the future. Even if Moon Safari isn’t exactly a challenging listen, it’s an endlessly gorgeous one."
But perhaps "Sexy Boy" is more challenging than its easy-listening and pleasing vibe makes it out to be. Godin and Dunckel make good use of a gorgeously sultry (Franchophone) female vocalist who only needs to say 'Sexy Boy' twice during each verse to effortlessly conjure an atmosphere of sultry sexual attraction. But as PopMatters' Timothy Gabriele observes, the English female vocals alternate with French male vocals to create a (possibly alarming) pansexual appreciation of male beauty (the French verses allude to the beauty, athletic vigour and masculine charm exuded by an idealized young man):
"“La Femme D’Argent” and its lack of climax gives way to the dark electro-ribbits of Air’s most well known song, “Sexy Boy”, a minor hit in Europe that even received some airplay from MTV around that time, back when they were known to play music videos in their regular programming. In the documentary included on the DVD, Godin reveals that he wanted “Sexy Boy” to elicit the same kind of disorienting sensation as the one brought on by the appearance of the man from another place in Twin Peaks. To Air’s credit, it is a demented pop nugget, equally homoerotic and androgynous, menacing and erogenous. “Sexy Boy” alternates between light, feminine, amorous verses and a dark, gently brutal, faux-masculine chorus. Like all of Moon Safari‘s vocal tracks not sung by Beth Hirsch, “Sexy Boy” is delightfully transgender, transcending sexual boundaries by being tantalizingly alien, appealing to GLBTQ, hetero, and beyond."
But you don't have to appreciate "Sexy Boy's" transgressive potentialities if you don't want to (there's probably a reason why the chorus is in French). The beauty of Air's music is that it can be taken in as lightly as you want it to (but it can also be inriguingly weird and unexpectedly dynamic if you're in the right frame of mind).
