Review: M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.

M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. officially redefines their genre into more than space-synth or dreampop. I'm not going to call it shoegazing because that name is stupid and people only "gaze" at their shoes when they're in trouble. And who's the idiot who didn't come up with stargazing? After all they are named for a spiral galaxy. Uplifting, reflective and motivational---maybe we could call it church. No, it's too dancey for that. How about transcendental electronica? Gonzales did say that this album was influenced by numerous trips to Joshua Tree National Park. I think Emerson would be proud.

French frontman Anthony Gonzalez called the album "very, very, very epic." Sounds pretentious, but it is in fact epic x3. Apparently the best M83 album yet. Because Pitchfork says so. Despite the fact that they've given every M83 album high marks. For the most part, the extra attention from Pitchfork means this album is receiving a wider audience many of whom are listening to the back-catalogue, Before the Dawn Heals Us or maybe Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, for the first time.

M83 has been making music for 10 years and over time the sound has evolved from melodrama to pitch-perfect introspection. I can't get over it. It makes me swoon every time:

Why does the single "Midnight City" sound so familiar? My boyfriend made the connection: Drive. It's like Kavinsky with far more depth - like the lovechild of Kavinsky and Noam Chomsky. In-song progressions shift so dramatically you're left wondering if you're listening to the same song. There's the same heady dreamscapes vibrating between morose and uplifting, but with some other unexpected additions. For instance, the child narrator in "Raconte-moi une histoire"is reminiscent of The Books and their playful use of obscure reading samples. For the first time there's also acoustic guitar and saxophone (giving it the added feel of 80s throwback) on this album.

Something that consistently surprises me about M83 is that their more uplifting, inspiring work never gets old and somehow Gonzales keeps making more of it. I'm stuck on this one right now:

Buy/Spotify Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. Use it to conquer the world.

For the latecomers here's a Brief History of M83:
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003). The song "Run Into Flowers" sold me on M83, although today it sounds a little too ambient to be true.

M83 - Run Into Flowers

There was more palpable inspiration and torment in Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005). "Teen Angst" and "Don't Save Us From the Flames" turned out to be much more mature than their emotionally taut names.

Digital Shades Vol. 2 (2007) showed a more somber side of mellow dreaminess. The band has a way of pulling you down into a lonely place and then building you back up into hopefulness.

And of course Saturdays = Youth (2008) included probably the most fully realized culmination of both M83's energy and meditativeness. The shining star:  "We Own the Sky."

Sarah Rae is a freelance writer and editor-in-chief of Poydras Review. She lives and writes in Brooklyn.