Soft Air

The Definitive Collection more than lives up to its title's promise, delivering 18 tracks, including all of Air Supply's Top 40 singles – "Lost in Love," "All Out of Love," "Every Woman in the World," "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)," "Sweet Dreams," "Even the Nights Are Better," "Young Love," "Two Less Lonely People in the World," "Just as I Am" – plus the original Australian version of "Lost in Love." A pair of latter-day singles that didn't make the Top 40 are missing, but they're not missed, since what is here is prime Air Supply – the best songs they ever recorded. Granted, it won't convince any doubters, but this is the ideal collection for both dedicated and casual fans, while being perhaps the most listenable item in their catalog.

Greatest hits albums are a big thing for Air Supply. Their first, 1983's Greatest Hits, is their biggest seller in the United States, earning five platinum certifications within its first decade of release, after which it was continually replaced by collections both considered and sloppy. All of which is to say, Real Gone Music's 2016 The Columbia & Arista Years: The Definitive Collection has some stiff competitors for the title of definitive Air Supply compilation, but this physical rendition of the 2014 digital release The Essential Air Supply does offer an overview of the soft rock duo's prime that's thorough in a way its predecessors aren't. Much of this is due to sheer length: at 30 tracks and two CDs, it's nearly a third longer than the previous standard bearer, 2003's Ultimate Air Supply (and it doesn't replicate all of that disc's songs, either, cutting away four tracks most fans won't miss).

Fittingly for an album called Mumbo Jumbo, Air Supply do employ some smoke and mirrors on their 2010 album – perhaps more than any of their previous albums, dabbling with a variety of textures and rhythms. Although their touch remains decidedly light, this isn’t merely a collection of romantic ballads: it opens with the spooky prog pomp of “Setting the Seen”; “A Little Bit of Everything” pulsates with the clean sheen of the late ‘80s; they work up a fairly good head of steam on “Me Like You”; they get a little dirty on the slow groove of “Lovesex”; “Until” approaches the baroque; and even on something as soft as “A Little Bit More,” the acoustic guitars are unadorned in a way Air Supply never have tried. While none of the songs approach the skyscraping hooks of their soft rock classics, this isn’t the sound of a band resting on its laurels; if anything, this is one the group’s most adventurous records, which may also be why it’s one of Air Supply's best.

Parlophone Records is proud to announce the third in a series of three digital David Bowie live releases from the 90s. The previously unreleased David Bowie live album, ‘Something In The Air (Live Paris 99)’ recorded live at the Elysée Montmartre on 14th October, 1999, is available from 14th August.