Meme Magazine

M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming (Naive)

What They Say

After the release of 2008′s acclaimed album ‘Saturdays = Youth’ which hit many end of year lists including Mojo and Drowned In Sound who made it their number one album that year, M83 (aka Anthony Gonzalez) will release his epic new double album, produced by Justin Meldal-Johnson (Beck, NIN, The Mars Volta, Goldfrapp) and including contributions from Zola Jesus, Brad Laner (from 90′s band Medicine) on guitar, and ‘Saturdays = Youth’ vocalist Morgan Kibby.

M83 fans have the opportunity to hear and download the first single, ‘Midnight City’. The adrenaline-driven dreamlike track is unlike anything we have heard from M83 before and reveals a taster of this ambitious and impressive album that singles Gonzalez out as an artist at the pinnacle of his career who is ready to take leftfield music to the masses.

‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ tackles themes of awakening, craving, and conquering, and delves into new vocal territory for M83. “I think it is a reflection of my 30 years of being a human being. It’s a compilation of all my previous music together. It’s a retrospective of myself”, says Gonzalez.

What We Say

This is the album that M83 always promised too deliver, following his successful debut ‘Saturdays = Youth’ – grand, sweeping synths, plenty of emotion, heaps of melancholy and drops of irony. But ‘Hurry Up We’re Dreaming’ is more than that: it is a ‘tour de force’ for Anthony Gonzalez. When listening to the album one can sense the fervor and energy that has been expended in getting it to this level: this album delivers intensity from start to finish, and, for a double CD, that is no mean feat. Let me give you an example: the opening track is called ‘Intro’, which on most albums would be a little one and a half minute ditty, but Anthony makes it a 5’22” build-and-climax epic.

The 80s influences are there throughout the album; there are welcome hints of Tears For Fears and Depeche Mode (with whom M83 has toured) and even Pink Floyd with ‘Wait’, but it does sometime stretch the effect too far, such as in the Heaven 17ish ‘Claudia Lewis’. Stand out tracks for us would be the grand ‘Steve McQueen’ which re-defines how far a record can keep the build going, and the single ‘Midnight City’, which you can listen to and download below.

If there is any criticism of the record it is that not everyone will want the full-on emotion for two CDs – perhaps one would have been enough, although we’re sure Anthony would disagree with that (apparently each song on a CD has a complementary song on the other CD, like a ‘brother and sister’). But we love the boldness of bringing us essentially re-hashed 80s sounds on steroids, but done it in a way that makes it feel fresh and interesting. It’s definitely not as edgy as some electronica artists on the scene at the moment, and probably not even as edgy as ‘Saturdays = Youth’, but that doesn’t take away any of the enjoyment of listening to this grand opus from a chap at the top of his game. ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ is out now on Naive Records (UK) and Mute (US).

Listen / Buy Here

> I Love M83 (plus free download of ‘Midnight City’)

> Juno

> iTunes

> Spotify

> Amazon

Listen to ‘Midnight City’ by M83

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 3:04 pm. It is filed under Featured, Reviews and tagged with M83, Mute, Naive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.