M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming |
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 | Tracklist:
1. Intro (feat. Zola Jesus)
2. Midnight City
3. Reunion
4. Where the Boats Go
5. Wait
6. Raconte-Moi Histoire
7. Train to Pluton
8. Claudia Lewis
9. This Bright Flash
10. When Will You Come Home?
11. Soon, My Friend
1. My Tears Are Becoming a Sea
2. New Map
3. OK Pal
4. Another Wave From You
5. Splendor
6. Year One, One UFO
7. Fountains
8. Steve McQueen
9. Echoes of Mine
10. Klaus I Love You
11. Outro
| Ranking: #47 for 2011 | |
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On 96 Lists
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2 of 3 thought this review was well written
Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is M83’s two-disc, seventy-five minute declaration: the age of irony is over!
Well, maybe things aren’t as simple as that, but HU,WD still feels like a Big Statement of intent in a musical era that desperately needs it. With the advent of Animal Collective, chillwave, witch house, grunge nostalgia, tribute albums, and all the weird musical and contextual minutiae that has been gradually swelling up in the Internet age, there’s been a perturbing sense that we’re all headed in the wrong direction. Creativity seems to be eroding, replaced with nostalgia for musical eras and trends past. Writing for Slate, Simon Reynolds nails our modern musical ethos as one indicative of “a pop culture increasingly characterized by a compulsion to revisit and reconsume its own past.” So when Ernest Greene (a/k/a Washed Out) releases an EP or album full of synth jams hyper-reminiscent of ‘80s italo disco, it’s not so much offensive--2009’s Life of Leisure is actually quite excellent--as it is demonstrative of a sort of cultural stasis. To put it simply, how can we make music history if we’re constantly obsessed with replicating past successes?
This is all heavy stuff, and I’ll be the first to admit that HU,WD--an album heavily indebted to the synth pop of the ‘80s--doesn’t really answer this pressing inquiry into artistic values directly as much as it sort of disposes of it. It cuts through the whole discussion simply by virtue of being way too good. This is conversation-interrupting music; even the most obstinate of Internet forum-posters would willingly cease-fire a rant on the lack of values in modern music just to hear the part in “Intro” where Zola Jesus just totally nails her vocal part. I realize that this doesn’t quite address some of the potential criticisms a double-album ‘80s homage will invite, so I’ll extend my praise even further: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is the first album in a long, long time to
sound both entrenched in the sounds of another era and yet completely fresh and exciting. Whether Anthony Gonzalez (frontman of and creative genius behind M83) is singing his warped version of a guitar ballad (“Wait”) or constructing impressionist landscapes of cascading synths (“Another Wave From You”) or shooting for the stars with the biggest, best chorus you’ve ever heard (like, 90% of the tracks here), it sounds like the magnificent result of a labor of love.
Even great “nostalgic” albums (Washed Out’s aforementioned Life of Leisure EP, Ford & Lopatin’s Channel Pressure, Ariel Pink’s Before Today) sound weak and diluted in comparison. It’s like comparing a great painting to an Instagram snapshot of the same work. Whereas lesser musicians clasp onto a certain sensation just for some sort of aesthetic credibility or to reductively look back on better times (or worse: for “ironic”--gasp!--purposes), Gonzalez latches onto ‘80s synth pop’s unique aural bliss simply as a vehicle to propel his smartly written and impeccably produced music into the stratosphere. For that distinction alone, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming deserves to be a modern classic.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4.5
written in a rush (20 minutes) for my school paper
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I normally like your reviews but I dunno about this.
| | | Album Rating: 5 | Sound Off
great review, a little short but impressive for 20 min haha. i like your perspective and agree completely, this is a colossal album.
Digging: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pamyu Pamyu Revolution Digging: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pamyu Pamyu Revolution | | |
your reviews are always really interesting which is cool
sometimes i think think you're just being silly but this is pretty solid.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
im too lazy to edit this but just know that i have an edit that makes it not seem like im dissing animal collective and that also some wording changes or something. juts know that. just know it
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expanding on what i said before
you can always expect your reviews to be like robertsona's take on the current world of music using this album as an example. this isn't really positive or negative but it's kind of cool. reads more like a series of blogs or something than reviews
| | | Album Rating: 3
I always thought 75 minutes was a normal length for an album until I realised that it's about twice the average
really need to listen to this. Midnight City wore off me pretty quickly though
Digging: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music Digging: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music | | | Album Rating: 4.5
I agree with so much that you say in this review, good job
Digging: Hop Along - Get Disowned | | | Album Rating: 4.5
*yawn* fuckin FINALLY
| | | Album Rating: 4
realllllly? damn
Digging: - | | | Album Rating: 3.5
It's Knife Man all over again
Digging: Strapping Young Lad - City Digging: Strapping Young Lad - City | | |
bad review 
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
kool
| | | Album Rating: 5 | Sound Off
why all the negs
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
pos'd. I like the review, something different. Still tells you a lot
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