The Virgin Suicides

Sofia Coppola had listened to Air while writing the screenplay, and wanted a consistently other-worldly score to sit against the 1970s songs in her film. Pitchfork's Jillian Mapes wrote that the duo agreed to write it on condition that they could approach it like an album. Dunckel said it was recorded quickly: at first the music was inspired by the film and tried to follow its scenes, and toward the end the aim was to make songs that could be heard on their own. Air produced and recorded it, Brian Reitzell played drums on five tracks, and Stéphane Alf Briat mixed. Playground Love, the opener, was written with Gordon Tracks, the name used by Phoenix singer Thomas Mars, who sings and plays drums on it, with Hugo Ferran on saxophone.

Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork, reviewing it in 2000, said Air had altered their sound by drawing on a wider array of rock influences, and heard nods to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and the Beatles' Abbey Road, most clearly on Bathroom Girl, Cemetary Party and Highschool Lover. He also praised its unpredictable chord progressions. Pitchfork gave it 7.2, and its 2019 list of the best movie scores put it at number four. Metacritic's average is 77 from 16 reviews. The French edition of Rolling Stone ranked it number 49 on its list of essential French rock albums, and it was nominated for Best Soundtrack at the 2001 Brit Awards.

Release and afterlife

The score reached 14 in the UK, 34 in France and 26 in Germany, and 161 on the US Billboard 200. It is certified gold in France and the UK. The single Playground Love came out on 17 January 2000, and a separate soundtrack album of the film's songs, issued by Emperor Norton in March 2000, includes a new vibraphone version of it. On 3 June 2010 Air played the whole score with the band Hot Rats, which has members of Supergrass, at the Cité de la Musique in Paris. A 15th anniversary edition in June 2015 added two studio outtakes and a disc of previously unreleased live recordings.