Brandon brings it home with Part 7 of AudioVole’s most epic dialectic for what will likely be the most epic album of the Fall. Just remember this axiom: 10 song album = 90 minute movie. Don’t nobody got a problem with a 90 minute movie.
M83 – “Wait” (from Hurry Up, I’m Dreaming)
You can download “Midnight City” in MP3 form, and check out tour dates, at ilovem83.com.
From: Brandon Hall
To: Chris Atto, André Salas
I think “nitpicking” is the appropriate word. This is an album that’s really solid, sounds amazing, has extra catchy tracks and beautiful ambient pieces. But if we all just said, “Man this album is sweet,” well, we wouldn’t be very interesting people and we certainly wouldn’t be able to convince anyone to read our opinions. So pick nits we must, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of it.
Chris, I certainly did not mean to give you any heat, mon ami!
Though while I would never deign to ask an artist to remain in a box, to constantly put out more of the same — in fact, I would rail against that artist for such a transgression — I do think we’re allowed to compare his or her body of work. My point was not that Hurry Up is different and therefore not as good, but rather that it doesn’t reach the heights that Saturdays=Youth did. That’s hardly a criticism as few albums reach such heights. There is a poignancy that’s missing on Hurry Up, and André, I think this goes to what you were saying about the overwhelming length and scope of the album. It’s hard to be focused, concise, and poignant when you’re working with such an expansive tableau. I do genuinely feel that this album should be taken one disc at a time, not all at once. It’s the only way it makes sense. What am I getting from the songs on Disc 2 that Disc 1 didn’t already give me? They are companion pieces after all, mimicking and mirroring one another. To listen to the full 72 minutes straight through really is subjecting yourself in the second half to more of the (awesome) same that you just spent the first 36 minutes experiencing. So while I definitely don’t mind that the hits keep coming, so to speak, I do think its bloatedness ultimately detracts from the power that the album might have had if it were pared down to just one of the two discs.
One of my paramount axioms is that a 10 song album is like a 90 minute movie. Everyone has time for a 90 minute movie and when it’s over, you’re usually ready for and wanting more. Same goes for a 10 song album. That’s not to say a longer album can’t be amazing, just like The Godfather, for instance, makes for an awesome three hour movie. But most movies can’t stay interesting for three hours, and most albums buckle under their own weight if they extend much past 50 minutes. Saturdays was a perfect 90 minute John Hughes movie. Hurry Up, I’m Dreaming aims for Godfather levels of grandeur but falls short primarily, I think, because its second half repeats the first instead of taking us someplace new.
Disc One, by itself, might have been a masterpiece.
Also, before I go — for as much as we all want more Zola/M83, that combo really does sound just like Cocteau Twins. While I wait for those two to team up, I’ll be over here listening to Treasure.
“We were you before you even existed,”
Brandon
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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