M83 : Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/m83hurryupweredreaming.jpg" alt="M83 : Hurry Up We're Dreaming" /><br /> What manner of sorcery is this?<span>  </span>The floor seems to fall out, and there you will find yourself, soaring...
M83 : Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
9.8 Mute
2011 

M83 : Hurry Up, We're Dreaming What manner of sorcery is this?  The floor seems to fall out, and there you will find yourself, soaring above it all.  Strapped into a rocket crafted and controlled by Anthony Gonzalez.  The rocket is called Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, and from such a dizzying height there is not much that can be done but hang on.  Take into consideration what it means to label an M83 album a soaring rocket.  Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts is a soundscape for staring at the sky, Before The Dawn Heals Us is home to car crash fantasy and teen angst (literally), and Saturdays = Youth (QRO review) cranks out Breakfast Club ballads when it isn’t busy owning the sky.  There’s really no need to call Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming a soaring rocket.  That much is implied. 

What’s still left to discover then is why a double album is really necessary, or even advisable.  Oh to often have beautiful artists fallen victim to the temptation of a double-album.  The seemingly picnic province of cranking out enough good material can quickly have artists grasping just for good enough.  Strange then, how Gonzalez manages to make this double album feel more concise and collected than any of his previous five. 

Maybe it’s the small things, the in-betweens, the interludes.  The one-minute plus change tracks that glue the album together.  The tracks with some of the most provocative, angsty names on the album, "Where the Boats Go", "Train To Pluton", "Klaus I Love You".  These are much more than interruptions to be glided over; they’re the ones doing the gliding. 

That can’t be all it is though.  After all, this is M83, vendor of teenage yearning, wielder of the weapon of double-edged ache and aspiration.  These are not emotions best experienced on a small scale.  So blow it all up.  We get the bass slappin’ ‘80s goodness of "Claudia Lewis" and "OK Pal".  We get the catapulting synth and drums of "Steve McQueen", a track that lives in a world that can mean anything to anyone.  Even "Raconte-Moi Un Histoire" isn’t a throwaway track, and it’s about a magic frog.  By all means let the forgotten art of the saxophone solo ring true on the absolutely mesmerizing "Midnight City". 

And yet, risking a nosebleed with the height and speed at which the album operates, the ground is still crystal clear.  There’s no altitude sickness, no grogginess.  Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming flies next to and around the clouds, not through them.  Anthony Gonzalez creates a world driven by emotions discovered by 16-year-olds.  It’s a world that a listener can fall into at any point and find something to grasp onto.  Hopefully the fall back down to earth won’t hurt too badly.  But if it does, M83 has the perfect answer: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

MP3 Stream: "Midnight City"

{audio}/mp3/files/M83 – Midnight City.mp3{/audio}

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