M83 – Hurry up, We’re Dreaming


A double album might seem like the wrong place to dip a toe into a groups musical sea but this is good enough to warrant it. M83 have been around for a few years now and their earlier album Saturdays = Youth is also worth a listen as are probably all their other albums but I haven’t heard those so I couldn’t really comment.


There’s a lot of really good indie/electro/pop coming from continental Europe these days and M83 are well up there at the top of the pile. If you like 1980s new wave mixed with a bit of shoegaze and a bit of indie credibility then look no further. The second track Midnight City probably encapsulates the best elements of the French bands approach; hazy vocals low in the mix, swirling synths, a catchy riff and a little bit of sax in the fade out. The album isn’t as steeped in the 80s sound as Saturdays = Youth with tracks like Raconte-Moi Une Histoire (featuring a little girl telling a story about a strange little frog; a piece of music that could quite easily feature on a Lemon Jelly album) and Soon, My Friend (with it’s acoustic guitars and harmony singing sounding like an outtake from Pacific Ocean Blue) mixing things up a little. In fact as a result of the extra space that the two CDs provide there’s a lot more variety to the tempo and the mood than the previous album…8/10