#404 M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Always worth hearing the new M83.

The rap on M83 is that their sound is "big". Alternately "huge". It's kind of a cliche, but one well-earned, from the juggernaut that was their debut to the massive timewise longing of their later stuff, the sounds have been loud, dense, layered, complex and ever-changing.

But here the M83 sound expands, not just upward, but outward, benefiting from a double-length runtime to play with and a reduced reliance on the 80's for nostalgic heft. The album sprawls instead of towering, we're given distant thunderheads with time to loom and roll over plains incomprehensible in scope. There's a sense of movement throughout, aided by little palette-cleansing interludes that pepper the 22 tracks, serving as montages and ellipses around journeys over days. The track titles drive this home subliminally, evoking transport, places, the passage of time, the singularity of the moment.

This all comes together best, this new outwardly blasting M83, in the early Where the Boats Go/Wait/Raconte-Moi Une Histoire sequence, where the ridiculous, twee-toeing child-voiced musings on frogs and universal love somehow succeed, thanks to the space you've passed to get there, not to mention the perfectly executed Lemon Jelly ambience that surrounds it. Then the Train to Pluton lets you off easy, sweeping you to the next vista maglev smooth.

The overall effect is strangely listenable for being so epic. Much like an 8 hour drive, by virtue of the zenlike acceptance needed to embark on it at all, can seem more managable than a 2 hour errand-driven hassle, the commitment, the promise, the lack of demands that submitting implies, can be freeing.

The sounds are not groundbreakingly new, but their composition is honed to a laser edge. This feels like the culmination of M83, I don't know where he goes next. There's nothing stunningly new here, but the craft earns it the low end of a 4.5/5

You might like this if: You've got an hour+ to get lost in synths, and want to get taken for a pretty good ride.