"I Need Air" is the debut single by British

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

project

Magnetic Man Magnetic Man is an English electronic music project from London, consisting of dubstep producers and DJs Benga, Skream and Artwork (previously known as Menta). The trio first met in the late 1990s at the Big Apple Records store in Croydon. The ...

, featuring American-Trinidadian singer

Angela Hunte 7669 was an American R&B girl group, who were signed to Motown Records in the 1990s. The name 7669 was a fusion of US independence (1776) & the sexual revolution (1969). The group was composed of members Angela "Big Ange" Hunte, Marcy "Shorti 1 ...

. It was released from their debut album ''

''. The single was released in the United Kingdom on 23 July 2010, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart. It also peaked in the top 20 in Belgium and Denmark. "I Need Air" and its following releases are characteristic of the fast developing

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

genre. The song features the refrain from Magnetic Man's promotional release "Mad" towards the end of the song.

Critical reception

"I Need Air" received vast critical praise from contemporary critics. Wendy Roby from '' Drowned in Sound'' deemed the song as a "faultless pop record". Roby further described it as "so perfectly put together" and "the record you should point to if an alien drops round for a cup of tea tomorrow and asks you what modern pop sounds like." Fraser McAlpine from ''

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

'' felt that the song was simply too good, giving it a five-star rating and complimenting its ability to make the sensation of being overwhelmed by feelings in the presence of someone you really like sound like the most solitary experience a human heart can endure. McAlpine went on to describe the way the rhythm of the vocal cuts across the beat and back again in the verses, and Angela Hunte's vocal pronunciation as brilliant. Nick Levine of

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

stated in his review of the song:

'I Need Air' is quite simply a stonker. Less simply, it's a monster-sized electropop-cum-dubstep club track that sounds as though it could coax everyone from Tristan in Dalston to Robbo from Romford to Joe at G-A-Y bar onto the dancefloor. It manages to do so while taking place entirely at midtempo. And it also contrives to make Auto-Tuned vocals - courtesy of Angela "I've got a writing credit on 'Empire State Of Mind' you know" Hunte - sound kinda cute. How clever are Magnetic Man? We'll leave you to answer that for yourself.

Track listing

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2010 songs 2010 debut singles Magnetic Man songs Songs written by Skream Songs written by Benga (musician) Columbia Records singles Sony Music UK singles Songs written by Angela Hunte