M83’s new album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, has tracks with a heartbeat-raising live quantity to it that I assume will convert to a huge live set when M83 grace our shores at Laneway Festival on January 30th…
M83’s new album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, has tracks with a heartbeat-raising live quantity to it that I assume will convert to a huge live set when M83 grace our shores at Laneway Festival on January 30th, says Theo Sangster…
I’ve always associated M83’s breathless 2008 release Saturdays=Youth with a mini surf trip my brother and I took in the late summer of ’09 (Waihi Beach, Karekare, Raglan).
I can still remember the salt on my skin and sun in my eyes – I even got my first barrel – and listening to that wonderful album on the drives between breaks would both help me recuperate and conversely, amp me up for the next lot of waves. It was indeed the soundtrack for that particular summer, and it’s all thanks to the ambient genius of Anthony Gonzalez.
The French electro-rock/shoe-gaze révolutionnaires have always conveyed a certain energy that I think is contained in the natural environment. From the mountains to the sea, M83 appear to seek that holistic connection to place – this heady creation we find ourselves a part of – and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, in a musical sense at least, serves to promote such a connection.
The album starts with that signature panoramic sound with help from Zola Jesus (‘Intro’) and continues throughout; first single ‘Midnight City’ is humungous, ‘Reunion’ has a heartbeat-raising live quantity to it that I assume will convert to a huge live set when M83 grace our shores at Laneway Festival on January 30th.
Though most of the record is that specific 80s-infused ambience, Gonzalez was always going to mix things up in an effort to hold our interest. "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire" is either an innocent tale of friendship or a bizarre acid trip. Either way it’s narrated by a young girl, which makes it either cute or disturbing depending on your take on things.
As in Saturdays=Youth, Morgan Kibby’s meandering Kate Bush-inspired interludes on sex, love, death, etc make their way across the latest release, one part of the whole that is Gonzalez’ symphonic exploration of 80s-inspired melodrama. The clattering of rail wheels in ‘Train to Pluton’ and song titles such as ‘New Map’ and ‘Where the Boats Go’ incite the theme of life-as-journey, and as I have alluded to earlier in this piece, the music of M83 is indeed movement, and should be treated as such.
Critics have noted that Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming sounds a bit similar to M83’s earlier works. That’s fine by me. If anything, M83 have revolutionised and carved out a sound that can be heard all over the show, especially effervescent chillwave artists such as Washed Out and Toro y Moi (both of whom will be gracing the stage with M83 at Laneway this summer).
Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is rightly titled; life is short – but a youthful nursery-rhyme dream. It’s a theme that runs through the music and storytelling of the record, and one that should be taken to heart upon experiencing.
Theo Sangster 18 November 2011
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