I can’t remember if anything happens involving this giant bag, it’s just sort of there…

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[5.14]

Rebecca Toennessen: This song drove me bananas, not just because it sounds incredibly samey, but the lyrics are really silly and not in a good way. We all miss our loved ones and gasses, so singing that “I Need Air” is just….dumb. I don’t hate it, I just don’t see the point.
[2]

Chuck Eddy: Is the idea of the title supposed to have something to do with the music being so intense that it suffocates you? Because it really isn’t.
[3]

Martin Skidmore: This lot are apparently a live-music dubstep act; but of course this is a record, which rather kills that distinction. After a lengthy slow start, there’s a reasonably lively female vocal and some okay beats behind her.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Dizzying and perpetually off-kilter, like dancing inside a washing machine. I’d probably pick a less anonymous and/or autotuned vocalist, but other than that, this new direction is fine by me.
[7]

Alex Macpherson: It’s thrilling that some different sounds are finally gatecrashing the cheapo electro-ridden UK charts; it’s heartwarming that dubstep’s long journey from the underground has finally reached the mainstream. Whether dubstep beats are still exciting in and of themselves is a different matter. Magnetic Man may be a supergroup of Benga, Skream and Artwork, but “I Need Air” would sound like half-attentive autopilot from any one of them solo. Which isn’t to say that a talented vocalist can’t elevate the arrangement — see the follow-up with Katy B, “Perfect Stranger”, or her own “Katy On A Mission” — but a limp, autotuned Angela Hunte doesn’t really suffice.
[6]

Iain Mew: This sounds like it’s going to turn into a full on banger at any moment but never actually does. That teasing is part of what makes it addictive though, alongside the variety of fascinating things it does with shuffling, skittering and morphing beats and sounds. The filtered vocals do nothing for me at best, though — would probably be an [8] if instrumental.
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: Kind of the ideal 6; I’d put it on a party playlist without a second thought, since the vocal performance and off-center beat are enough to keep it afloat, but the woosh-blip instrumentation doesn’t do enough to merit either ecstatic dancing or urgent demands to know who it is on the stereo. A playlist can’t be all highs.
[6]