Chris Atto defends the hell out of M83’s latest opus as a conceptual gem about childlike innocence. It was almost a perfect letter until he started bragging about his French skills. He’s new to this, but he needs to learn that this is no place for self-aggrandizing hubris. J/K, that’s all this place is for! Brandon then pulls a Kanye on Taylor by jumping in on André and throwing in his two cents out of turn. That guy’s an asshole. Who let him in here?
M83 – “Echoes…” Album Teaser
You can download “Midnight City” in MP3 form, and check out tour dates, at ilovem83.com.
From: Chris Atto
To: Brandon Hall, André Salas
Hey Brandon,
Glad to hear that you are enjoying this album exactly as much as I am. It’s funny that you mentioned Gonzales’ quote about the two discs essentially being companions to each other because I’d been thinking from the first listen that it was a double album that didn’t feel like one. I actually listened to it again this afternoon with that in mind and it was really interesting to see how nicely a lot of the songs from the first disc matched up with the second. It really did bring a whole new meaning to this entire album.
Now, while I completely agree with you about the brilliance that is Saturdays=Youth, I think for me the difference is that where we both see Saturdays=Youth as a reflection of what it feels like to be a teenager, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming feels to me like a musical exploration in the innocence of childhood. And I guess that the Gonzales quote you provided in which he refers to the two discs as a young boy and a young girl only further enhances my beliefs.
Maybe my opinion is a bit skewed by my favorite track on the album, the adorable and heartwarming (yes, adorable and heartwarming) “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire”, which, thanks to my multiple years of French in both high school and college, I can translate into “Tell me a story.” In this track, we hear a little girl telling the story about a magical frog that lives in the forest and all the wonderful things that happen if you are able to find that frog. As her story progresses, the music gets increasingly more upbeat and glorious and the story concludes with the young girl telling us about how everyone can become frogs and join together to become “the biggest group of friends the world has ever seen”. Of course, we cynical adults know that that’s a pretty lofty goal, but I feel like it’s this childlike innocence that is at the heart of this album. Or maybe I’ve just let one track shape my opinions of the other 21.
It’s also interesting that you don’t think this album works as well as a whole as the last one because I’ve been thinking the exact opposite from day one! The flow of the album is so deliberate with the highs and lows that it almost feels conceptual, with the music providing the ebb and flow of vivid dreams intertwined with calm, visionless sleep. And while the album starts out with a major 1-2-3 punch of songs that could be mega hits all on their own, there seem to be so many musical themes that carry through all of the songs that it feels like it could only make sense as a whole. That’s not to say that the same is not true of Saturdays=Youth, but I feel like that album had more potential for standalone hits than this most recent one.
But maybe we’re just splitting hairs, though, since it seems pretty clear that we will both giving this album one or two zillion more spins. Either way, it’s been a while since I’ve been so anxious to hear what others have to say about an album, because I think there is much to be said about this one. I’m only sad that M83 won’t be making any stops in Detroit on this tour because the one live performance I’ve been lucky enough to witness in person won’t be forgotten any time soon.
Are you convinced? Probably not, but maybe.
“Until we meet again, as frogs, in the biggest group of friends the world has ever seen,”
Chris
From: Brandon Hall
To: Chris Atto, André Salas
I’m gonna pull a Kanye on Taylor right here.
André, I’mma let you finish, but Saturdays=Youth is one of the greatest albums of all time!
Kidding. That’s not actually what I’m interrupting to say. Nor do I really believe it. Maybe in a big enough list of greatest albums.
I just wanted to interject that I do feel as though “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire” (having taken no French, I still successfully translated the balls out of that bitch!) is an aberration. Or at least not representative of the whole.
For that matter, I suppose my point is that none of the songs are “representative of the whole.” Though I don’t disagree that the sequencing is sublime, I don’t feel like the songs share a whole lot in common in terms of a larger thematic narrative. They sound like the work of a singular artist, and they sound like they belong on the same album for the most part, but I don’t feel like they contextualize one another, like “Year One, One UFO,” would mean anything different to me or sound any different were it to follow “Reunion” instead of “Splendor.”
Sorry, André. You were saying?
B
Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is out 10/18 on Mute.
Pre-Order Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming: CD | Vinyl LP | Digital Download | iTunes
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