[Reaper16]

39.) M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming


It took me a few weeks to listen to this album. It was the album of the moment in a lot of hipster circles; circles which tend to laud albums that bore the shit out of me (Fleet Foxes, anyone?). But I gave it a try – not knowing a damn thing about M83 or their/his past releases – and found an awful lot to enjoy. This is an absolutely HUGE pop record. Like, take no prisoners and spare no sound HUGE. Throw in all sorts of electronic synth lines and samples and try to make the most anthemic electronic pop album of all time HUGE. It’s a Goddamned double-album, the classic sign of musical hubris/testicular fortitude. Take for instance “Midnight City,” linked below: it sounds like someone strapped Gary Newman and Hall & Oates with dynamite and placed them in a Honda Fit and then set off the dynamite when the car drove into Kenny G’s house. It’s ****ing awesome. Even better is “Steve McQueen,” which doesn’t have a YouTube link available for it: it sounds like an old Bowie record mixed with modern indie-pop melodies mixed with a Sufjan Stevens-like songwriting scope mixed with punishing drums mixed with Kraftwerk if Kraftwerk played xylophones. Just about every song here is huge, even the under-two-minute instrumentals. It’s actually too over-the-top for me to truly get behind. The strain of trying to be as anthemic as possible shows across the double-album length. It’s in need of a trim, but even in excess this is an incredibly fun pop album.