Customer Reviews

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If, as the title states, we are entering dreamland on M83's sixth studio release, then our fantasy is taking place in the big-haired, neon-bedazzled world of the 1980s. And why not? Back then, the American Dream still came equipped with houses.

It's not that this band, formed by French musician Anthony Gonzalez in 2001, has pitched a tent in the '80s-revivalist camp. It's as if this music is being unearthed from the 1980s, and somehow repackaged and taken in new directions with the help of today's technology.

The style employed on "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" feels like the front end of a burgeoning trend. Gonzalez has a keen sense for melody, which paired with his entrenched connection to ambient and techno sounds, creates something akin to hip-hop; a cut-and-paste form of new wave. "Dreaming," like M83's previous outings, is mostly a synth affair, but the band for the first time employs saxophone, acoustic guitar, flutes and strings to give the album a fuller flavor than, say, 2008's extroverted "Saturdays=Youth."

If all 22 songs were as dense as "Intro," the opening track, the album would be an exhausting experience. The song, featuring the operatic Zola Jesus, is a thick, moody slab of electronic pop with enough dark and light shades to make Brian Eno blush. Luckily, "Dreaming" offers a wide spectrum of hues, right down to the song's antipode, "Raconte-moi Histoire," a light, airy tale about a magic frog in a land where "everything looks like a giant cupcake," as told by a kindergartner.

On the dance-floor cool-down number, "OK Pal," M83 has no peer. It's grand pop like Peter Gabriel's early untitled records -- helped by the fact that Gonzalez's voice is reminiscent of Gabriel, powerful yet ethereal. The song is full-on electronic, with hints of Herbie Hancock, Steve Winwood and Tears for Fears at play. "Steve McQueen" offers a tantalizing, opposites-attract marriage of electronic fuzz with soaring melodies and lilting voices -- part a-ha, part Jesus and Mary Chain, part "Kokomo"-era Beach Boys. There's also the Kraftwerkian "Klaus I Love You," flamboyant space rock a la Muse on "My Tears Are Becoming a Sea," and the sweeping, organ-slathered "Splendor," offering shades of Toto.

But nothing tops the instantly infectious "Midnight City," the album's first single. Big synth drums, bigger synth voices and Gonzalez singing over top in a voice that's cold, but strangely affecting (think Gary Numan on "Cars"). It even ends with an obligatory '80s saxophone outro that seals the deal.

There's no mistaking that "Dreaming" has epic aspirations -- it is a double album, after all -- but it's heights are easily climbed because Gonzalez always remembers to bring the hooks. Throughout, M83 changes the tempo and shifts the mood often enough to keep the proceedings interesting, and at times jaw-dropping. And it's such a tightly woven production that some songs when played separately seem to begin -- or end -- abruptly.

..at 62 (Dear God..)I have been combing through todays' music like so much rubbish trying to find something...anything...that would take me where I would like to go.

Namely, out of myself, but, at the same time, within myself.

Here it is.

I found it.

I was really looking forward to M83's latest album after hearing "Midnight City", their excellent first single a few months ago. _Hurry Up, We're Dreaming_ is a well produced, audacious double album more or less continuing on from where _Saturdays=Youth_ left off. It's a pretty decent album overall, but I can't help feeling that Anthony G skimped a bit here and there when it comes to the melodies. You'll find a bunch of electro-pop tracks reminiscent of numerous 80's hits ("slappin' the bass, mon!") like Level 42 or Propaganda, a lot of instrumental interludes and keyboard driven melodies. This album sounds drenched in keyboards, and that's not always a bad thing. The saxophone can be heard embellishing a couple of songs. And there are a couple of tracks that feature acoustic guitar as well.

I really like most of the traditional, structured songs more than the instrumental interludes. "Reunion" starts off with some glorious chords and drums that sound like emphatic punctuation marks and remind me of the British band Prefab Sprout circa their _Jordan: the Comeback_ (1990) days. The drums crashing forth from the opening of "New Map" will take you back to "Don't Save Us from the Flames" from M83's 2005 release _Before the Dawn Heals Us_. "OK Pal" is a pretty catchy Howard Jones-ish number. But for me the highlight of the album, besides "Midnight City" is "Steve McQueen", a song with a soaring, fists-in-the-air chorus, dense guitars and pretty, swirling keyboards and lyrics that could be about what? The celebration of life, perhaps, self-forgiveness?, rejuvenation? It doesn't really matter. This song is REALLY GOOD.

"Fountains" and "Klaus I Love You" are a couple of the shorter, (mostly) instrumental pieces that work. In fact, I would have liked to hear how "KILY" would have sounded if it was more fleshed out. But most of the shorter songs don't have the melodies to make them memorable.

The album does seem to move along pretty quickly and considering its hour plus long running time, that's saying something. Perhaps some of the shorter tracks will grow on me as I keep listening. But the tracks worth hearing, the ones I keep going back to, are "Midnight City", "Reunion", and "Steve McQueen".

*** 1/2 stars

In creating "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming," Anthony Gonzalez most certainly swung for the bleachers. Unafraid of a potential whiff, Gonzalez stuffed the record with everything he could dream up, and in so-doing created a record most comparable with other double "everything but the kitchen sink" albums like the White Album, the Wall, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. In sequencing the album, Gonzalez is largely successful, never generating a feeling that the record could have drastically benefitted from a more serious editing eye.

Ultimately, what you hear on this record is the influence of the '80s. Gonzalez has always pulled his emotional direction from the bubblegum neon lights of classic teen films like the Breakfast Club, but on this record his sounds are far more diverse, bringing back his long love for shoegaze but pairing it with the tribal sounds of Peter Gabriel's best work and a pop sensibility worthy of the decade's greatest hooks.

Glowing reviews from the blogosphere will certainly bring in a number of new fans, and with the diversity and creativity on display, anybody should be able to find something to like about M83's latest. As with most double albums, the record tends to fade a bit towards the end, with some of the best tracks padding out the very beginning. "Intro" features a stellar vocal take from Zola Jesus, who brings a yearning and depth that is sometimes missing from Gonzalez's thinner voice. Lead single "Midnight City" is a stellar jam and sure to fall on virtually every year-end best list, and it really nails home the explosive aesthetic of the album.

Though none of the tracks on this album really stand out to me in the way that "Kim & Jessie" or "Graveyard Girl" did on Saturdays = Youth, this record stands as the more consistent of the two. My biggest gripe falls more on the technical aspect of this record: clocking in at around 70 minutes, this album hardly calls for a 2 CD release that will require people to switch out CDs in their car or home stereo to listen to the entire record.

A lot of artists tried to do the 80's theme this year, including Beyonce (4) and Lady Gaga (Born This Way), but none came as close to capturing retro electronic synth-pop quite like M83's "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming". If someone told me this album was from 1986 I would've believed them; right down to the airy, soaring male vocals. I'm not even sure if M83's desire was to replicate the 80's, but they could have fooled me! I've never been a huge fan of electronica/techno, usually due to its obnoxious overwrought nature (derivative, loud, etc), but M83 has changed all of that for me. This band pays respectful homage to nu-wave, the likes of Sonic Youth and Depeche Mode, without lapsing into cheesiness; difficult, but thankfully not impossible. This is my first M83 record after I discovered their lead single (Midnight City) on the internet and I have to say the musical journey, so to speak, is worth the price of admission (aka CD).

Primarily, the keyboard work is phenomenal. Blending many different synth waves with traditional instrumentation (sax, flutes, guitar, percussion, etc) is not an easy task and Anthony Gonzalez (composer) does an admirable job. Speaking of instrumentation, 'Midnight City' is not the only track you are apt to find a lovely saxophone solo so keep an eye...uh, ear...out for more. Choral harmonies make an appearance as well, including a children's choir, adding an 'epic' quality to some of the tracks. Personal preference will denote whether this is a pro or con, but I am a sucker for the bombastic nature of a swelling chorus/orchestra. However, make no mistake, this is an album entrenched in nu-wave and M83 offers little reprieve despite taking these compositional risks. Additionally, lead vocalist Morgan Kibby's vocals admirably carry a majority of the melodies; at times breathy, but never unplesant. The lyrics, mostly, stay far away from typical pop kitsch and succeed at being interesting and evocative without trying too hard to be cerebral: "The city is my church", "Oh time", etc.

I, personally, could have done without the pseudo-cinematic dialogue which unfortunately makes an appearance on many tracks. Honestly, I've heard sampled/improvised spoken dialogue so many times from so many other artists it has become an incredibly tired gimmick. Also, like any double album, "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" could have used some trimming, albeit not much, but these are minor quibbles among an overall fantastic release. It's definitely a five star album and I won't take that away from them due to a few personal, minor complaints.

What we have here is not your loud, crass, overrated pop-dance-techno album. "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" is something truly special that utilizes brilliant compositions and instrumentation, successfully personifying a seemingly unattainable, illusory soundscape: the dream state. In a sea of bland, irritating, unmitigated auditory garbage, M83's latest effort transcends genre to become a categorical classic. Literally anyone with any musical preference should find something to love. Hurry up...and buy it!

Favorites: "Midnight City" (best track on the album and an ideal first single; sax solo seals the deal), "My Tears Are Becoming A Sea" (delicate masterwork), and "Splendor" (children's choir is brilliantly featured).

I think there's a split in the camps of who likes which works of M83. Don't get me wrong, but I think everything changed after "Digital Shades."

I love the old stuff. I think the first 3 albums are absolutely spectacular and completely timeless. I thought those albums couldn't be topped in their punch and impact, and I was right. "Saturdays=Youth" is overrated, and so is this new one. A lot of the tunes on here are way too forgettable, and can be easily thrown around and heard in the background at a coffee shop and not actually capture my ears. May be that's because they evoke too much of the 80's synth and gets lost for me. There's too much "crying" as I like to call it, those "pseudo-cries of pain" kind of sounds he overuses through the effects - but, may be that's what people like in the new sound now. I just like the slightly more grungier, metallic, grounded sounds of the earlier works. Am I out of touch? I don't think so. I know exactly what I liked in M83 when I first heard them back in 2001, and up to "Before the Dawn Heals Us" I didn't think M83 could ever be topped.

"Midnight City" is just not the sort of sound that I like from M83. It's too repetitive and derivative, and the singing adds nothing to it - except I wished that Iva Davies of Icehouse would sing on this album in place of Anthony, because he would've fit right in. And I loved Icehouse. Same problem with "Reunion." Same with "Claudia Lewis." Same with "My Tears are becoming a Sea." Same with "New Map." Same with "OK Pal." Same with "Steve McQueen." I mean he should've just hired Iva Davies and got some help. I could seriously put these songs somewhere in the middle of Icehouse's works and they would've fit in perfectly.

If this is what's representative of M83 now, I'm truly disappointed. May be it's also because he got more and more interested in the live-performance aspect of himself and that is why it went this way. But it didn't need to be - he told much better stories with the sounds and effects when he just focused on telling the stories in the sounds as if he was just instrumenting to be heard through the stereo through the internet radio (which is how I found M83 in the first place). May be he does need somebody like Nicolas, his old partner to help him with better sound-scape writing. Some of the other, more simple electronic tracks without the singing and wailing are a little better, the best being "Where the boats go" which is reminiscent of his older works. The older stuff is so much better.

I almost can't really listen to this new stuff since "Saturdays=Youth." I wish he would get past the old church-synth he loves so much though. I never needed M83 to be a live-performance band. I think he hopes that he can catch us dreaming and not really paying attention. He knows it's sub-par. Or may be doesn't care - because he thinks he's so cool now standing up there on the stage pretending to look cool.

To add to the bit about how he wants to hear himself sing more, play more gigs on stage - Simon Cowell might say that it's a bit self-indulgent. It's one thing to want to make something to be enjoyed by an audience, but in this case, I think he just wants to be flashy on stage when he performs. That's why the songs are "songs" now rather than well-constructed theme tunes.

I've been a fan of M83 since Dead Cities came out and this is his best yet. Maybe it's because I am a sucker for glitz or because I'm the same age of the album's creator and experienced the 80s in a similar way. But I feel that this is an album that you need to give your full attention to and if you do, it can devour you. It's so large that it feels like an entire universe. I don't think my brain has ever been exposed to so much serotonin at once; I can't say I'm a terribly emotional person, but it made me want to weep. Anthony Gonzales has proven in the past that he can create very cinematic music, but here he paints a picture so vividly impressionistic it's almost a hallucination. I feel like I'm looking back fondly on the innocence of childhood and emotion of my teen years, coupled with a story of a journey, with periods of wonder, fear, loss, happiness and triumph. I almost wish that it was released with a short story, but I guess we are meant to come up with our own. Gonzales has dropped a few ambiguous hints though, that it is about dreams, youth and siblings; the first album is the spirit of the brother and the second the sister and the two are mirrors of each other. But the mystery and vastness of it all can be summed up by those opening whispers that really make you think about life, reality and dreams.

Headphones were invented for sonic experiences like this cosmic voyage from M83 - the aptly named "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming." For the uninitiated, M83 is essentially a one-man act - that is, French multi-instrumentalist Anthony Gonzalez. He does work with frequent collaborators, however. While starting out as a spacey electronica outfit, M83 is firmly entrenched now in the dream pop genre. "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" is a two-disc album that focuses on how dreams vary depending on one's age. This subject matter is ideal for an artist who is fond of enigmatic lyrics and wondrous aural vistas.

Admittedly, Gonzalez adores the big production style that defined the 80's, but there is nothing excessive in his methods here. His approach is simply necessary to achieve the epic technicolor vision of his trip through subconscious bliss. For the band that gave the world the ultimate dream pop song with "Kim & Jessie" from 2008's "Saturdays = Youth," it's no surprise this effort failed to top that benchmark; however, that matters little since this album is wall to wall with great tunes. While his fifth album was a disappointment overall, this outstanding record reclaims the glory of the 2005 masterpiece, "Before The Dawn Heals Us."

"Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" is pivotal for Gonzalez as he has embraced his singing voice. He sounds like Eric Woolfson of The Alan Parsons Project in spots and Chad Petree of Shiny Toy Guns in others. Up to this point, M83's music has been mostly instrumentals. With all the hushed vocals of his previous work, it's rewarding to hear Gonzalez step out and sing so well. Furthermore, he employs his voice imaginatively on songs like "Claudia Lewis," "OK Pal" and "Steve McQueen" where some may mistake the sounds as a synthesizer.

The album is the sum of lessons learned from just over a decade in the biz and the result is spectacular. This instant classic slides gracefully between liquid ambient pieces and continent shifting epic pop. Also, Gonzalez is willing to indulge his playful side on songs like "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire" where a little girl tells the story of what happens if one touches this special frog from a distant land. Such sweet eccentricities make for sublime lullabies. The double album format is ideal for exploration, which M83 take full advantage of. For example, the 'spooky laughing clown' choir drives "Midnight City," while "Year One, One UFO" lands in the middle of a Spanish fiesta. The bottom line - "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" is beautiful, awe-inspiring and adventurous. Indeed, it is one of the best albums of 2011.

Highlights are: "Reunion," "Wait," "New Map," "Year One, One UFO" and "Steve McQueen."

[A final thought - there are complaints that the music here could've fit on one disc for this album. That is a fact. The Flaming Lips' double-LP "Embryonic" was released all on one disc, so this has been done by other artists. However, Gonzalez, being the nostalgic type, wanted to release a true double-album while physical compact discs are still being made. This information was related by the musician in a recent interview I viewed on YouTube. By the way, The Clash's "London Calling" could've fit on one disc as well - think about it. Would we want that to be a one disc album? That said, either way (one disc or two) - this in no way diminishes my enjoyment of this record or other double albums that I own.]

{NOTE: In order to get the bonus song "Mirror," retrieve the code (which should be 32 digits I believe) from the inside sleeve of the CD where the album notes are contained. The CD case itself, not the liner booklet. The code is very hard to see and one will want to hold the CD up to a bright light to see it. Be aware that the code is made up of numbers, except what may look like 1's are actually I's. I had to use a combination of both on mine for whatever that's worth. Another hint is that the last 16 digits of the code are the opposite of the first 16 digits (like a mirror's reflection). Well, that was my experience at any rate. Once you locate the code, go to M83's main website and find the link on how to get that bonus track. Follow the instructions from there. Note the website will send you an email once you have gone through all the steps - the email contains a special link where you will be able to download the free track "Mirror" (which is in the vein of the 2008 song "Couleurs").}

The obvious place to start a review for this album is with its expansive sound. It manages to stay epic through fast songs ("This Bright Flash;" some of the album's coolest drumming), to ambient interludes ("Train to Pluton," for example), without sounding tacky, and that is hard to do. What amazes me about M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, is its expansive style. Granted, he gives us twenty two tracks on the double album, and so he has plenty to work with; but the entire album manages to work together while exploring a wide range of sonic territory. He does things like use natural sound samples (birds at the end of "Fountains") and draws them in direct contrast with highly digitized sounds (seconds later in "Steve McQueen"), but he buries them all in a wave of slow, baroque shoegaze synthesizers, bass, and drums. In creating this consistent musical "scene," he is able to experiment to a huge variety of timbres.

But this is not just Anthony Gonzales. Or, if Anthony Gonzales is M83, then there is more than M83 on this double. Zola Jesus, appearing in "Intro," sounding almost like a more harnessed Gonzalez in similar range but absent of Gonzalez' distinct, accented wail on the phrase's high notes. Gonzalez made a good choice in having the album produced by Justin Meldal-Johnson, a fantastic bass player who has worked with a range of artists including Beck, Macy Gray, Jamiroquai, and Gonzalez's fellow Frenchmen Air. Johnson's stylistic range in bass-playing shows itself in songs like the funky Claudia Lewis, his 16th note section in "Reunion," or the almost Strokesy ending of the epically playful "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire." His past work as a band director for major outfits is evident in the way that the album is mixed, with almost equal reverence given to each song's arsenal of tracks. The credits on this album are fittingly long and expansive, only bolstered by the monologues and dialogues spoken into the mix.

What I love about the album is the way that the electroacoustics factor in. Having a wide range of voices from choirs and choruses, to monologues written to the piece by Gonzalez and his filmmaker brother, he is able to incorporate other natural-sound samples without making the listener flinch. Acoustic instruments are never put on the chopping block as the only acoustic instrument. Gonzalez gives you a better picture of the continuum, implementing related timbres to make everything work within his massive soundscape. He and Gonzalez keep any singular melody line from poking out in the mix. He uses acoustic guitar, like on "Soon, My Friend," and he incorporates the timbre without sounding awkward because his synthesizer tones are so expansive. He opens up a wide spectrum of sounds for himself to play with by focusing on layers, and incorporating a wide range of instrumentation and synthesized sound.

These are considerate, heartfelt songs. For this reason there is almost a folk-indie flavor, augmented by the frequency of Gonzalez's distinct voice relative to his prior albums. In his idea, to write a brother-sister double album in which songs from the brother's perspective would correspond to songs on the sister disk, he again cannot be blamed for aiming too low. The extent to which he pulls this off is debatable. Regardless, such a thorough, time-invested plan for the album results in songs that are carefully constructed with great consideration for their overall efficacy. They create a correspondent whole. As he recently told musicOMH interviewer Ben Hogwood, "This album for me is kind of a soundtrack of an imaginary movie, or some kind of life as well. The soundtrack needs to have deserts and mountains, and there are some epic moments but also some very quiet ones."

This cinematic quality is perhaps reflected in Gonzalez's method. Gonzalez drove into the desert from his home in LA with a computer and keyboards, rented an isolated cabin, and using "a modular system, from synthesizer.com - it's like a Moog replica," as he told Hogwood, to construct the first draft of his work. He goes on, in this and other interviews, to comment on the way that his songs are in a way inspired by environmental vastness and monumentality. As Stereogum reporter T. Cole Rachel recently pointed out, Gonzalez always manages to "to create sounds that are somehow both retro and futuristic at the same time." Maybe the songs' timeless element has something to do with their being conceived in desert, where there are fewer indicators of time's presence.

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is Anthony Gonzales trying to conceive of music in as big a way as the kind of sound he has a knack for creating. Hence, he makes a double album. It is complex lyrically (even featuring foreign languages), textually, and rhythmically. On the first listen, it is a lot to take in. It requires your attention one moment, and the next will sound like falling asleep - or waking up. Gonzalez has no qualms about making his pride for the record known, and he has every right to be proud. It has the depth - the short songs, the brief moments and layers that capture one's attention only after half a dozen listens - that Gonzalez loves about albums like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness or The Beatles; double albums that demand to be treated as a reflection of an artistic existence, and feature the sonic vehicles with which to fulfill that existence.

Es un buen disco... mas me gusto el cd1 que el 2. El cd 2 por momentos cae y se vuelve un poco aburrido, pero es cuestion de gustos y parecerees. Canciones como "midnight city" y "reunion" son simplemente espectaculares. Lo recomiendo...