Album Pick of the Year

This year it was tough to pick out one album that stood out as “favorite album of the year”. This is simply because of the multitude of strong releases by some of my favorite indie acts, which in retrospect is probably the kind of problem that you want to have. Among these honorable mentions are albums by tUnE-yARDs, and St. Vincent, both of whom I’ve seen live (they both put on SPECTACULAR shows) and Atlas Sound and Girls, both of whom I’ve bought tickets to see in December and January, and while I love all four of those acts, and all four of the wonderful albums they each have put out in this past year, my “favorite album of the year” award has to go to the double album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” by M83.

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is difficult to categorize, for on the one hand it is eclectic, mixing eighties sounding drum beats, bass licks, saxophones and vocal lines with  modern electric noises and lyrics, and on the other hand because it is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. The easiest genre to place this album in would be 80’s revival electronic, label it as “sort of like Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti” (who I love) and be done with it, but that label doesn’t quite do the band or the album justice. With shrill electric noises over smooth familiar beats with thrown in guitar and soothing vocal lines this album is much more than that, it is its own.

One of the things that will instantly turn me away from an electronic album/band like M83 are repetitive or non-attention grabbing riffs. There is nothing worse than sitting down for an electronic album, most of which are only 30-40 minutes long and not being able to listen to the whole thing because I get bored. Now to undertake listening to an album in this genre that is 79 minutes seemed daunting at first, but before I knew it the album was done and I was the one left dreaming. Particular tracks that stand out are the single Midnight City, which I will get to in a minute, its B-side counterpart New Map, and one of the closing tracks Steve McQueen. As the name of the album suggests, the songs are ephemeral, vanishing into air before the listener can fully digest them, leaving only a haze a little like the skid marks the Delorean in Back to the Future leaves behind, but these three tracks in particular stand out, sort of like that one part of a dream that you can remember. The reason I said I would get back to Midnight City is because a week after I heard that single it appeared in a Victoria’s Secret commercial. One week. And do I blame them? No. Normally I’m against using licensed songs in TV commercials as a way to make money and promote a band, but I can understand why they did it. M83 while gaining popularity in Europe, in particular their country of origin France have gained little popularity in the US. This is their sixth album after all, and I’ll be damned if I’d heard of them before this. And besides the song fits with the commercial, there is something subtly sexual about it which, as Sigmund Fraud would tell you, is a key component of every dream. It was just a shock to hear after only a week of being released.

Anyway, the album on the whole is a gem, sparkling from beginning to end. It listens a bit like looking through a window, peering into the private life of someone you’ve never met, never will meet, and being shown the innermost workings of their minds via pop songs. And hopefully its gives the band some sticking power here in the states. We could use a little M83 right now here in the states, and they better hurry up.