Condition: New
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Label: Mute – 9510-1
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album
New
Country: USA & Canada
Released: 18 Oct 2011
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Shoegaze, Electro, Indie Rock
Tracklist
Intro 5:22
Midnight City 4:04
Reunion 3:55
Where The Boats Go 1:46
Wait 5:43
Raconte-Moi Une Histoire 4:04
Train To Pluton 1:15
Claudia Lewis 4:31
This Bright Flash 2:24
When Will You Come Home? 1:23
Soon, My Friend 3:09
My Tears Are Becoming A Sea 2:31
New Map 4:22
OK Pal 3:58
Another Wave From You 1:53
Splendor 5:07
Year One, One UFO 3:17
Fountains 1:21
Steve McQueen 3:48
Echoes Of Mine 3:39
Klaus I Love You 1:44
Outro 4:07
If, as the title states, we are entering dreamland on M83's sixth studio release, then our fantasy is taking place in the big-haired, neon-bedazzled world of the 1980s. And why not? Back then, the American Dream still came equipped with houses.
It's not that this band, formed by French musician Anthony Gonzalez in 2001, has pitched a tent in the '80s-revivalist camp. It's as if this music is being unearthed from the 1980s, and somehow repackaged and taken in new directions with the help of today's technology.
The style employed on "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" feels like the front end of a burgeoning trend. Gonzalez has a keen sense for melody, which paired with his entrenched connection to ambient and techno sounds, creates something akin to hip-hop; a cut-and-paste form of new wave. "Dreaming," like M83's previous outings, is mostly a synth affair, but the band for the first time employs saxophone, acoustic guitar, flutes and strings to give the album a fuller flavor than, say, 2008's extroverted "Saturdays=Youth."
If all 22 songs were as dense as "Intro," the opening track, the album would be an exhausting experience. The song, featuring the operatic Zola Jesus, is a thick, moody slab of electronic pop with enough dark and light shades to make Brian Eno blush. Luckily, "Dreaming" offers a wide spectrum of hues, right down to the song's antipode, "Raconte-moi Histoire," a light, airy tale about a magic frog in a land where "everything looks like a giant cupcake," as told by a kindergartner.
On the dance-floor cool-down number, "OK Pal," M83 has no peer. It's grand pop like Peter Gabriel's early untitled records -- helped by the fact that Gonzalez's voice is reminiscent of Gabriel, powerful yet ethereal. The song is full-on electronic, with hints of Herbie Hancock, Steve Winwood and Tears for Fears at play. "Steve McQueen" offers a tantalizing, opposites-attract marriage of electronic fuzz with soaring melodies and lilting voices -- part a-ha, part Jesus and Mary Chain, part "Kokomo"-era Beach Boys. There's also the Kraftwerkian "Klaus I Love You," flamboyant space rock a la Muse on "My Tears Are Becoming a Sea," and the sweeping, organ-slathered "Splendor," offering shades of Toto.
But nothing tops the instantly infectious "Midnight City," the album's first single. Big synth drums, bigger synth voices and Gonzalez singing over top in a voice that's cold, but strangely affecting (think Gary Numan on "Cars"). It even ends with an obligatory '80s saxophone outro that seals the deal.
There's no mistaking that "Dreaming" has epic aspirations -- it is a double album, after all -- but it's heights are easily climbed because Gonzalez always remembers to bring the hooks. Throughout, M83 changes the tempo and shifts the mood often enough to keep the proceedings interesting, and at times jaw-dropping. And it's such a tightly woven production that some songs when played separately seem to begin -- or end -- abruptly.
M83 - Midnight City
Official video
loving the saxophone in this
M83 - Intro
King's Barcade in Raleigh, NC, 10/29/11
M83 - Reunion
Live at the Crescent Ballroom. In Phoenix, Arizona
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