M83’s highly anticipated sixth studio album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, was released October 18 gracing fans with a double album featuring 22 tracks.
For those unfamiliar with M83, the French band can be described best as synth-heavy indie-pop with heavy influences from classical music composition.
Having toured with bands such as Kings of Leon and The Killers, it would be a stretch to describe them as similar artists in terms of sounds, where in fact M83’s is easily one of the most unique bands in today’s indie-music scene alongside similar artists like The Knife, Animal Collective, and Empire of the Sun.
With prior albums such as Dead Cities, Red Seas, Lost Ghosts, and Before the Dawn Heals Us, conveying a very dark and almost orchestra-like sound, the 2008 album Saturdays=Youth had more an 80’s style tone to it, with a general theme of the loss of innocence we experience in our teenage years.
Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is “mainly about dreams, how every one is different, how you dream differently when you’re a kid, a teenager, or an adult. I’m really proud of it. If you’re doing a very long album, all the songs need to be different and I think I’ve done that with this one,” M83 front man Anthony Gonzalez said in a recent interview for SPIN Magazine.
The first thing fans will appreciate with this new album is its general length. Where many artists are releasing shorter length albums, M83 makes fans feel that theirs is worth every penny, or worth every second of illegal download time.
On top of producing an album at epic length, Gonzalez raises his already sky-high bar of various sounds, from synth-heavy pop to blues saxophone, and every vocal range from screaming chants to eerie whispers.
This very vast array of sounds can be a bit distracting at times, causing listeners to potentially question what the general point of the album is. Gonzalez safely titled the album to allow him to experiment to such a degree that the ambiguous and surreal nature of dreams can explain the sound accordingly.
Despite several tracks on the album not leaving a lasting impression, upon full listen the album feels much like a dream. With parts that can be easily forgotten and parts that seem to haunt us after awaking. Gonzalez’s ambition with this album is undeniable.
My favorite albums from M83 are Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts for its raw simplicity and the very dark mood that it sets with what seems to be little effort. Like most bands’ later albums, the desire for experimentation and progression can often ruin the original sound that fans came to admire, but this is definitely not the case with M83.
The sophistication of their sound requires several listens through this album. Each listen will let fans notice more and more of the complexity of the tracks. Absolutely massive sounds juxtaposed with delicate and dreamy sound effects let the album act as a journey through a mystical world of auditory eccentricity.
With such a great amount of hype given by indie-music blogs awaiting the album’s release, overall it doesn’t quite live up to the epic expectations many of the fans will expect to hear. However, one thing is for certain, if you’re an avid fan of modern indie-rock or a disbeliever in the genre’s talent, M83’s Hurry Up We’re Dreaming is worth a listen.
Ultimately, it’s best indulged with an open mind, and an appreciation that the vague and inexplicable nature of dreaming carries over through the massive sounds of the album.
PHOTO COURESY of uwnpost.com
