Songs I Like

M83 Review 1

M83 are one of the most interesting, diverse and innovative music acts I've come across. The French music project, lead by Anthony Gonzalez, has gone from the dazy, random electronic sound of its 2001 debut to the more relaxed, but ambitious sounds of 2019's DSVII in it's 20 year career that has boasted 8 albums, the soundtrack to the 2013 film Oblivion, 3 Grammy nods for the 2011 masterpiece Hurry Up, We're Dreaming and multiple talented collaborators to help Gonzalez make his hits that have impacted listeners worldwide and become instantly recognized from movie soundtracks and radio stations. 

With all that being said though, not many common listeners have heard much beyond hits like Midnight City, Wait, My Tears Are Becoming A Sea, Outro, Kim & Jessie, Graveyard Girl, America and Teen Angst, to name a few, or listened beyond that one binge of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. Listening to all their albums consecutively is a surreal but fulfilling experience. It's almost like watching a child grow. 

The self titled debut album arrived in 2001. It's an odd little album, and comes as a shock to listeners who haven't heard beyond their newer stuff. When read all at once, the tracklist tells a short story: "Last Saturday night, at the party, Kelly sitting facing that violet tree, staring at me. I'm getting closer. She stands up, caresses slowly my face. 'I'm happy', she said." While odd, I feel it very much has the M83 spirit that is still there today.

The first song is a minute long instrumental called Last Saturday. The best way to describe this song is one time when I was in a park, on a swing, looking at all the kids playing and cars passing and staring up at the sky. This song was playing and it really fit with the setting.

The second song is Night. It's a big difference from the somber Last Saturday. It's an electronic song that's a bit repetitive, but overall sounds good. You can definitely tell it was made in the early 2000s, with a sound similar to that of video game, commercial and TV show soundtracks of the time.

The third track is another minute long, somber but odd instrumental called At the Party. This 100% sounds like old elevator music or hold music. It also sounds like something from the setting I mentioned earlier, of sitting alone in a park, watching life go by.

Kelly, the fourth track, is the first song on the album with any kind of lyrics. It's a slightly hectic electronic track, with electronic sounding vocals dominating among the music. It's a little off putting at first, but becomes better with time. It's another song that just has the absolute essence of the early 2000s. This album is truly a product of it's time so far. The ending of the track calls back to the somber sounding Last Saturday and At The Party, with eerie electronic wailing ending the track.

The fifth track, Sitting, is the first song on the album that could be described as a dance song, despite the album being dominantly electronic in sound. M83 are a band that often proves it's capabilities to make electronic sounds match any mood and any type of song, which has shone all through their career.

Facing That, the sixth track, is a whopping seven and a half minutes. It's a somber track, mostly, with an eerie electronic wailing at the beginning before heading into a repeating, somber beat with an audio excerpt from a piece of media playing. Around 2 and a half minutes in, it introduces a drum beat for a short period of time, along with electronic elements such as wailing synths, before it descends into another type of somber beat, which is lovely until robotic beeping plays for the outro, which still startles me after a few repeat listens.

Violet Tree, the seventh track, starts with relaxing, dreamlike xylophone/glockenshpiel beats, and it dominates the track. Electronic elements are added throughout, making for a really nice sounding song. It ends with a sort of cinematic, tense droning sound. This is another song that is very reminiscent of the time it was recorded in.

The eighth track, Staring at You, is an oddly pleasant sounding electronic shoegaze song, last for little under 2 minutes, with synthesized vocals appearing in and out through the short piece. This is really where the M83 pattern of some of their most interesting and best songs being very short began.

I'm Getting Closer is the ninth track. It has a very dreamlike intro, which then turns into the soundtrack of a sci fi movie, before turning into an electronic piece, dominated by drumbeats, an excerpt from a piece of media of a woman talking and synthesized wailing. This is the climax, which calms down into the ending while keeping some of the same elements. It's an interesting song that has grown on me since the first time I heard it.

The tenth track comes in the form of She Stands Up. It has a tense, cinematic sounding opening before an excerpt of what I believe is a woman and her child talking plays over a drum beat and electronic synths. The ending consists of distant guitar playing that begins during the ending of the electronic bit, and draws out to the end. It's a really nice touch. I like this song.

The eleventh song, Caresses, starts off as a drumpad set to distant strings in the background. This continues until it develops into an orchestral, cinematic sounding ending. It's a song that does feel cinematic in a way, which is really a true sign of an M83 song.

Slowly, the twelfth track, is an electronic dance tune that also feels lowkey in a way. It's not crazy, and it's not too calm. It's just a nice, feel good piece. It pretty much develops throughout within that theme, without the dramatic change of tone many of the songs have on here.

The second last and thirteenth track, My Face, is a relaxing, dreamlike shoegaze track that is very short, with a runtime of under 2 minutes. Again, it's a short song that deserved to be longer and is a standout.

The final and fourteenth song, I'm Happy, She Said, is a whopping almost 18 song track. during that time, it maintains a steady and nice electronic song for about 10 minutes, then turns into an entirely different, dramatic, somber orchestral piece. It then goes silent for many minutes, before it turns into static buzzing that turns into a rather pleasant orchestral piece. It's a song I have mixed feelings about, and feel the runtime could've and should've been much, much shorter.

Overall, M83 is a tricky album for me. It's my least favourite out of all their albums. It takes many listens to get into, and when that happens, you notice some of the perks that make it such a unique album, and the techniques, styles and sounds that would go on to define their career and this sound. While M83 have gone through a sound development that I feel is one of the most fascinating in the industry, the distinct sound of them was born here, especially in the second half of the record. 

I give this album 6/10, and I'll soon be reviewing their 2003 sophomore album, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, which developed on the sounds of this record and added some new things to the table as well. Hope you enjoyed. :)