French duo Air released their debut album, Moon Safari, on this day, January 16th, in 1998. At the time I was working as a manager in a really square, corporate chain CD & tape store. Most of the music we played in the store wasn't by choice but because of placement and in-store promo deals our company had made with the major labels.
On a good day, we had maybe 3 or 4 albums we could pick ourselves to play (and even those still had to get "approval" from the regional office. Moon Safari's mash-up of spacey disco, exotic pop and stoned lounge music was an antidote for a lot of the commodity sound they made us gunk our ears with each day.
What are you listening to tonight?
