5. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
The best records make you want to start it over as soon as you finish. This school of thought tends to favor shorter records, but Anthony Gonzalez, the main force of M83, might have made an exception.
Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is a sprawling double album — almost 80 minutes if you count the bonus track, “Mirror.” The ambitious project is certainly a bit pretentious — it’s a double album about dreams with voiceover narratives. Plus, you know, he’s French. But it feels nothing but genuine.
Despite it’s length, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming never bores or drags. Its pure magnitude of sound and force sucks you in to its expansive dreamscape. But a double album of shoegazy pop would get mind-numbingly dull. Thankfully, Gonzalez puts an incredible amount of life and originality into the album.
In addition to the bright synths, Gonzalez and his slew of guests, including Zola Jesus, Brad Laner and Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck), add everything from expected strings to surprising slap bass on “Claudia Lewis.” The album’s first single, “Midnight City,” arguably the best song of the year, features an incredible ’80s sax solo — nostalgic, but somehow, not dated.
Gonzalez’s ambition certainly doesn’t fall flat. The music can go from gigantic soundscapes to quiet musings and never falters for a second in the span of two discs. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is, without a doubt, his best album yet.
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