Air Miami - me. me. me.

Me, Me, Me Review by Heather Phares

Almost immediately after Unrest called it a day following 1993's Perfect Teeth, Bridget Cross and Mark Robinson began working on songs for their next band. Given how soon Air Miami started in the wake of Unrest's breakup, it's not surprising that, on the surface, Me, Me, Me isn't radically different from the work of Robinson and Cross' previous band. On songs like the snappy "Neely," the bubblegummy "ba-ba-ba" backing vocals, and the double-time strumming feel like a logical extension of Unrest's tightly wound pop. However, Air Miami's lone full-length occupies a special and distinct space of its own. The duo described the project as "Mark and Bridget" as opposed to Unrest's focus on Robinson, and their guitars twine and chime together on moments such as the album's closing interlude "Reprise." Cross' greater presence leads to some of Me, Me, Me's brightest highlights, with "Seabird"'s balmy drift and "Afternoon Train"'s jazzy coolness reflecting the sunny and shadowy sides of her songwriting. Just as importantly, Cross and Robinson opened up Air Miami's creative process to an outside producer -- namely, Laika's Guy Fixsen -- something they never did with Unrest. Fixsen's post-rock meets avant-pop sensibilities meshed so well with the duo's ideas that experimentation ran wild. As a result, no two songs on Me, Me, Me sound all that much alike, as hinted at by the one-two punch of "I Hate Milk"'s jagged riffs and the New Order-ish shimmying guitars and high-pitched bass on "World Cup Fever." Elsewhere, Cross and Robinson expand on Perfect Teeth's experiments: Cross' "Event Horizon" pairs a Soft Cell beat with radiant girl group choruses, and the sparkling electronic snippet "Sweet as a Candy Bar" bears a kinship with Stereolab as well as Laika. Even with their allusions to post-rock and electronic music, Air Miami was still a left-of-center pop act at heart. Me, Me, Me delivers plenty of hooky, sun-streaked escapism with songs like "Definitely Beachy," where the distortion-laden guitars are equal parts sugar and sand. At its best, the album sounds like daydreams of pop songs. All breathy harmonies and galloping drums, "Special Angel" is an indie pop gem that, along with the strutting "Dolphin Expressway," summon a bliss that Robinson and Cross seemed to tap into effortlessly. Despite their abundance of catchy creativity, Air Miami feels like something of an outlier within the world of '90s indie. This may be because they were gone so quickly; the journey from their self-released demo tapes to disbanding only took a couple of years. Nevertheless, Me, Me, Me boasts some of the most appealing songs Robinson and Cross created with any of their projects. ~ All Music