M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Pts 1-7)

M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming doesn’t come out until October 18th, but the damn thing is so epic, we had to get an early jump on it. Brandon, Chris Atto, and André Salas break down the double disc follow-up to the spectacular Saturdays=Youth. Topics include: children’s dreams, magic frogs, plush vampires, a Pretty in Pink remake, masturbating to Rita Hayworth, The Godfather, and shuffle – the whore. After the jump, a dialectic as epic as the album it discusses.

M83 – “Midnight City”

You can download “Midnight City” in MP3 form, and check out tour dates, at ilovem83.com.

From: Brandon Hall
To: Chris Atto, André Salas

Well. Looks like my fall just got soundtracked. And apparently my fall is going to be epic!

Anthony Gonzalez’s sixth album as M83, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, is his follow up to the brilliant, critically-acclaimed, heart wrenching, and heart-wrenchingly beautiful Saturdays=Youth. If you can’t tell, I was a big fan of that one. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is his grand statement, double album to be put alongside Prince’s Sign ‘O’ The Times, Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the Beatles White Album, Guns ‘N’ Roses Use Your Illusion, etc. Not that it sounds like any of these albums, just that it’s huge and grand and somewhat of a rite of passage for an artist who trades in epic scale and has garnered enough clout and popularity to warrant such an undertaking.

Regardless of the fact that this is a double album, its run time is a much less harrowing 72 minutes – certainly short enough to fit on a single album, though given the scope and variance of each of its 22 songs, I’m honestly grateful it was broken up into two LPs. Turns out there’s a deeper reason for the split than ease of consumption. I’ll let Gonzalez explain it himself:

“The cover has a brother and a sister sitting in a bed. One side is the spirit of the young boy, and the other side is the spirit of the young girl. It’s like how brothers and sisters are different people, but connected by blood and mind. Each track has a sibling on the other disc.”

I read this about a solid week into listening to nothing but this album and it’s yet another trick in a bag so jam packed full of them I can hardly keep track. That is to say, I think this is awesome! It gives a shape and form to the album I hadn’t noticed before. And sure enough, upon closer examination, every track on the first disc does match up beautifully with its counterpart on the second.

Allow me to match them up for you:

Intro                                                   >>>	My Tears Are Becoming a Sea
Midnight City                                     >>>	New Map
Reunion                                             >>>	OK Pal
Where the Boats Go                          >>>	Another Wave From You
Wait                                                   >>>	Splendor
Raconte-Moi Une Histoire                 >>>	Year One, One UFO
Train to Pluton                                   >>>	Fountains
Claudia Lewis                                    >>>	Steve McQueen
This Bright Flash                               >>>	Echoes of Mine
When Will You Come Home              >>>	Klaus I Love You
Soon My Friend                                 >>>	Outro

Gonzalez has spent the better part of three years working on this album. He even left his home in the South of France to live in Los Angeles, which, what!? He’s said in a number of interviews that this double album is somewhat of an amalgamation of all of his past records, which is kind of undeniable, and, given the album’s size, unsurprising. You can hear a lot of Dead Cities‘ electro-shoegaze, plenty of Saturdays=Youth‘s nostalgic bent, and not a little of Before the Dawn Heals Us’s synthed-out bombast. Furthermore, this album + headphones makes New York City a synthy, spectacular wonderland. I don’t know if I ever want to go anywhere in this city listening to anything else.

There’s a shit ton in this record, so I’m really glad we’re triple teaming this thing. I, for one, can’t look past Saturdays=Youth. Fair or unfair, that album is a classic and its status as such becomes more permanently cemented with each passing year. In trying to recapture the angst and passion and thrill of being a teenager in a John Hughes universe, Gonzalez tapped into something really beautiful and poignant. It was small and sweet, just like the best of John Hughes’ movies, and for that reason was bigger, I’m sure, than anything even Gonzalez had anticipated. But now everything he does has to be reflected in that light, no? How can I ever listen to another M83 album and not want to compare it to Saturdays=Youth?

As wonderful as this album is, I think it genuinely does pale in comparison. And this album is wonderful. Each song is a fucking knockout. But unlike his previous album, I don’t get the impression that these songs fit together to form a greater whole. They’re just really fucking awesome individual songs. Unfortunately, M83 has created a world where we get to expect more than 22 amazing songs that I will be listening to for at least the next three months.

What do you guys think? Am I being unfair, or am I missing something? Do you grasp an overriding theme that I don’t see?

“The city is my church,”
Brandon

M83 – “Echoes…” Album Teaser

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

M83 – “We Own the Sky” (from Saturdays=Youth because what else am I going to put here? There’s nothing other than “Midnight City” available yet from the new album!)

From: André Salas
To: Chris Atto, Brandon Hall

Insert my best “hurt, on the verge of tears with quivering lips” Taylor Swift face here, guys.

Anyway, listening to the new M83 offering Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming while still under the thrall of the previous release, Saturdays = Youth was kind of like going back to the pantry for another plain strawberry Pop Tart and having an avalanche of the chocolate frosted variety rain down mercilessly on you instead.

It’s no mistake that I was finally inspired to write my unofficial sequel to Pretty In Pink (in which a now 30-something Duckie reunites with a now-divorced Andie in Park Slope where she owns a clothing boutique) after hearing the twee indie-pop of Saturdays. There’s not a second of its scant run-time that doesn’t reference sources as varied as 80s synthpop, 4AD ethereal, shoegaze, dreampop and of course, John Hughes ready British alternative pop. It’s so perfect, so precious, that it’d be cloying were it not delivered with a very assured wink. But a little of this can go a long way, and that brings us to Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

In a year where I was pretty much ready to celebrate the return of the 10 or so track album (Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Dum Dum Girls, The Raveonettes), it was a bit crushing to be served up a 70s style double album release, and a concept album at that! (I imagine there’s a limited 2 record vinyl gatefold edition out.) Is this the new Tusk, or a Sign O’ The Times? Or maybe, just maybe, another Welcome to The Pleasuredome? Granted, at 70 or so minutes it’s not exactly an unusual length for a CD/mp3 release these days, but it still means filler. Lovely, tasty little bits of fat that probably should have been excised before serving. It also means songs that get lost in the mix — good songs. I mean who has 72 minutes of spare time to smoke out, listen to an album, clutch their plush vampire and stare at a Billy Idol poster? Not me, for sure, and the pity is that since by habit most of us start at the beginning of an album, most of us also pretty much peter out by 35 minutes in.

So while the brilliant, euphoric “Midnight City” gets all the attention its madcap electronics deserve, something like the ethereal, “Tangerine Dream”-evoking instrumental, “Fountains,” might not. Unless this is the point? Since Mr. Gonzalez makes a point of linking the two sides of this release as blood brothers or even twins, maybe you can skip one altogether? Pick a favorite? Start with B instead of A? Or maybe just do one a day?

So I’m sort of agreeing/disagreeing with you guys. The songs are there. The tenuous thematic link between the songs isn’t quite enough to hold it together as a solid concept album, though. I agree with Brandon that it’s better taken as just a platter of fantastic random songs to be enjoyed at will. Which all means: HIT SHUFFLE, BITCHES! It’s a different experience, and I think it serves the songs better in this case.

“We’re walking in the streets / Or what’s left of them / And I take your hand,”
André

M83 – “Kim and Jessie” (from Saturdays=Youth)*

You can download “Midnight City” in MP3 form, and check out tour dates, at ilovem83.com.

From: Brandon Hall
To: Chris Atto, André Salas

So, I’m torn.

Yes, I think hitting shuffle is a fine idea. I don’t think it changes the feel of the album at all. That’s kind of my problem, if I’m going to go about wasting my time having problems.

That said, I don’t think there’s filler. Now, I mentioned in my first post that splitting this album up into two made for easy consumption. André, you said you start to drift after 35 minutes. Exactly! That’s why you only have to do one album at a time! All 72 of these minutes could have fit on a single album, but Gonzalez broke them up for us. What a guy, right? And since each disc is a mirror of the other, there really isn’t any driving need to listen to them both in one sitting. Pick an album, Boy or Girl, A or B, 1 or 2, and go for a walk. Go grocery shopping. Ride the F from Park Slope to Midtown. Masturbate to old Rita Hayworth films with this on in the background. 72 minutes is a lot to take in in a single sitting. 36 minutes, on the other hand – totally doable. (Just like Rita Hayworth.)

I’m interested specifically with what you think is filler? You mentioned “Fountains” and I’ll just go ahead and throw in its counterpart, “Train to Pluton.” These songs do not stand alone well, nor do I think they’re supposed to. We can all agree that this album is exploring the nostalgic subconscious of the dreamworld, yes? As such, both “Train to Pluton” and “Fountains” act as lovely, imaginative interludes between the full-blown synthy/exciting “dreams” on either side of them. “Claudia Lewis” is one of my favorite tracks on the album, reveling in all its 80s funk-bass and keyboard grandeur, but maybe one of the things I love most about it is the ethereal (sorry to overuse that damn word but we’re talking about fucking dreams, here) train ride we take to get there from “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire.”

The thing is, I would enjoy the train ride of “Train to Pluton” anywhere on this album. So if I put it on shuffle, the only thing that would annoy me is if I ran into too many consecutive instrumental interludes, say “Train to Pluton” followed by “Fountain” followed by “Where the Boats Go” followed by “Another Wave From You.” Then I’m all like, “Fuck you, shuffle. You were never good to me. You never think about my needs, you selfish whore. I’m done with you. We’re done. Jerk.”

You know what I’m saying?

All right guys, let’s get down to brass tacks. Talk to me about some of these songs. What are the standouts in your opinion? I hear at least four surefire, blow the lid off this MFer singles. But tell me which pieces aside from “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire” you’re most impressed with and why? Also, how does this album stack up in M83’s oeuvre? In its “Premature Evaluation,” Stereogum said this album was a step back from Saturdays and I tend to agree. Chris, I know you love this album, but how do you think it compares? Step forward or step back?

Also, can we please get a full M83/Zola Jesus album? I totally miss M83’s last singer/collaborator, Morgan Kibby, who is one of the reasons Saturdays was so heart wrenching. Unfortunately, she barely makes an appearance on Hurry Up as Gonzalez takes on the brunt of the singing duties, himself. However, Zola Jesus’ part on “Intro” is fucking awesome, as is just about everything she does, and I’d gladly pay massive sums of money for more M83/Zola magic.

La la la, indecipherable lyrics, la la,
Brandon

*[I guess I’m just going to keep putting up Saturdays=Youth videos for lack of Hurry Up, I’m Dreaming content. It’s not like you couldn’t afford to hear these great songs again.]

M83 – “Reunion” (from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming)

From: Chris Atto
To: Brandon Hall, André Salas

I, for one, would DIE for a Zola/M83 album. In fact, when I first heard “Intro”, my immediate thought was, “Damn! Zola Jesus sounds fucking perfect on top of some M83 music!” I don’t see a full collab in our future but I will most certainly continue to secretly pine for one. I didn’t realize Kibby was no longer on board, though I know she’s been picking up a bit more with her own White Sea musical project. But that kind of makes me sad because when I did get to see them at Pitchfork Fest a few years back, Kibby was a major part of the awesome that ensued.

But I don’t really agree that this album ought to be put on shuffle; the slower tracks all work together with the upbeat tracks to form the flow of the album, which to me is a pretty good flow. I seem to be getting a lot of heat for not talking about how much better Saturdays=Youth is, but I guess I just feel like they are different beings and we should take Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming for what it is instead of comparing to past, present, or future. Because what’s the fun of an artist putting out the same thing time after time? Not that much fun, I’ll tell you that.

On to the singles. Well, I guess this is where I feel like the album works as a whole better then as individual tracks. Other than the first three songs, two of which have already sort of been released as “blog singles”, I don’t really think there are a ton of singles on this album. Or maybe it’s just harder for me to pick out individual tracks because like I said before I think there are some strong musical themes that run throughout the whole album, so perhaps in my head the songs blur together a bit.

Anyway, I’m off to a sushi happy hour.

Still wanting to become a magical frog,

Chris

M83 – “Teen Angst” (from Before the Dawn Heals Us)

From: André Salas
To: Chris Atto, Brandon Hall

As one genuinely prejudiced against overlong albums (Wouldn’t The Clash’s Sandinista! or even Madonna’s Erotica have been masterpieces if trimmed down to 10 or 11 tracks?), I really do think shuffle is the answer when trying to give all the songs a fair shake, especially if you are taking on the whole set at one sitting, or on your subway ride to work. And I didn’t say “full of filler”, just that with this many tracks filler was inevitable. OK, perhaps filler is a harsh word (although I did say lovely, tasty filler), and damned if I didn’t like the tracks probably most likely to be accused of BEING filler (the aforementioned “Fountains” and “Train to Pluton”)!

What I think was trying to say was, at it’s long running time, there is a certain sameness to certain tracks that eventually becomes distracting, even boring at one sitting. This kind of backs up Chris’ claim that the “strong musical themes” that hold the album together in mood make the songs “blur together a bit,” which is where my “one side at a time” suggestion comes in, though i was half-joking at the time.

I don’t find a noticeable decline in musical quality in Hurry Up compared to Saturdays, but, granted, I just discovered that album and haven’t had the build-up of anticipation and feverish expectations that fans may have accumulated over time. It just seems like more of a grower to me, and the extra length doesn’t help. The chosen promo singles were wisely the most immediate, and jeez, why not another Zola Jesus vocal or two?

I can’t help but feel I’m nitpicking at this point, this is a solid, exciting album and I’ll be listening to it a lot as the Fall winds whip through my black overcoat and I mope into the night.

Who is Claudia Lewis?,
André

M83 – “Wait” (from Hurry Up, I’m Dreaming)

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