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In the post-YouTube world of everything-all-the-time access to popular culture, the concept of 'cool' is all but redundant. Sometimes this is A Good Thing, especially now that we need not bore ourselves with questions along the lines of whether it’s Ok to like Abba.
It is a truth almost as universally acknowledged – except possibly in France itself – that the French never gave a camel’s arse for the rest of the world’s definition of cool. For instance, Jean-Michel Jarre's son et lumière was kind of impressive but it was also kind of ridiculous, although my French friend's response to this suggestion was a louche middle finger. It was precisely this insouciance that elevated the early work of Daft Punk, Phoenix, Justice and – yes – M83 above pretty much everything the Anglophone contingent had to offer at the time.
So far, so good. Relativism isn’t only tempting because it allows us to be lazy. It opens our minds, enables us to try other perspectives on for size. But it is a truth even more universally acknowledged than either of the universally acknowledged truths above, that you’ve got to draw the line somewhere. And, much as it pains me to jump ship on the Versailles massif after all this time, I’m drawing mine roughly a third of the way through Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
Double albums are necessarily somewhat hit and miss. That’s part of their pick’n’mix charm. But M83 mostly miss me here. For each post-‘Kim and Jessie’ slice of pungent Eighties-rehabilitation pop cheese (‘Midnight City’, ‘New Map’) there are two tracks that sound just how you’d imagine Eighties Genesis (I did briefly consider actually listening to some Eighties Genesis to corroborate this, but as I’ve said, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere). For each enjoyably blatant Lemon Jelly rip (‘Raconte-Moi Une Histoire’, ‘Year One’) or modest Eno-recalling interlude (‘Where The Boats Go’, ‘’Another Wave’, both of which echo ‘The Big Ship’) there’s a track where you fully expect Jim Kerr to descend from the gods hooting and dressed as a flower. And for every reminder of the ineffable power of 'uncool' in the right hands – Propaganda’s relatively unsung 1985 classic A Secret Wish comes to mind on several occasions (en)during a sit through Hurry Up We’re Dreaming, as does Felix Da Housecat – there’s something that sounds like it was left off The Final Cut because the bloke with the funny face out of Level 42 was playing the bass.
Gentle readertards, who would prefer fans-turned-critics to only ever write about things they have already decided to like, may breathe easy here. Honest guv, I was up for this. Certainly, I wouldn’t concur with the Radiohead fanboy contingent who thought Saturdays=Youth represented a dilution of the M83 aesthetic. More pop is usually A Good Thing in my book. But here the impulse is more towards the portentous, Fairlight-raddled, heart-on-sleeve vacuity of mainstream Eighties transatlantic rock-lite than the soaring-indie stylings of Saturdays... or the more songlike portions of its predecessors, and I’m afraid it mostly leaves me froid.
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M83
well ok..
previous "new order rip off" one was album of the year, this one is half good. i get it. :-)
erratum
Original unbutchered text of review here:
<http://misterchristrout.com/i/#posts_2011_10_m83-hurry-were-dreaming>;
It is a music journalist's job to stuff as many references, and jabs, into an album review as possible.
That is what I take from your writing style.
do you write for Tiny Mix Tapes?
this review doesn't make much sense and is kind of repulsive
lol
It doesn't make any sense at all in the hacked-about form it's been posted here. I do love "kind of repulsive" though.
BladeJB343 doubtless believes it is a music journalist's job to provide a balanced and informed critique of the artist's work, probably including helpful hints along the lines of "if you like this, you'll like this". Well, there's plenty of that already out there. I'm not interested in adding to the surplus. If you don't like it, read something else.
i read the 'uncensored' text
and really, the only thing it adds is more references.and you might not be interested in adding to the surplus of balanced and informed reviews, but this review is no different than the heaps of other self-reverential reference-heavy Oh One Of Those reviews. yeah if i don't like it i can fuck off, but you're posting a review on a public music site, so if you don't like comments, don't submit reviews. ps i actually agree with most of your actual sentiments of the album
fair enough...
It adds a couple of half-decent jokes, too, I'd like to think, repulsive or otherwise. And, um, some making of sense. But I'm prepared to take most of what you say there on the chin. Can't really argue with "... no different than the heaps of other self-reverential reference-heavy Oh One Of Those reviews"! (I do like comments, that's why I sometimes bother to read them and reply).
Einhorn is Finkle?
Chris Trout is Mary Bellamy?
Slightly harsher review than I was expecting.
I'd say that the album is a 6.5 myself - there's some good very songs on the album but overall, it just doesn't work for me.
My already dim view on the merits of music journalism
just got slightly dimmer :-/
Wowee
The phrase "trying too hard" just doesn't do this review justice.
Well I like this review
Especially the Jim Kerr bit :-D
the butchered one is better
The link didn't work for me but I had read it when you posted it. For the most part I agree with the review, but what you wrote about the French originally was in bad taste and uncalled for in my opinion, as if you just wrote it to add "edginess" and draw attention. And I'm not even French myself.
Poor review.
It doesn't hold up for a whole double album, but Hurry Up, We're Dreaming's overall 'sound' is distinctive and rather pleasing.
Also, if you are trying to write a funny, ever so knowing review, remember to make it funny. Breaking the 4th wall is not cool.
seems to me that DiS desperately wants to be pitchfork. This review simply sucks, while Veronica Falls, while good, gets 9/10... reallly? really?
THEY'RE WRITTEN BY DIFFERENT PEOPLE YOU FUCKING MORON
would sincerely support not only an IP ban but the actual seizing of all computer equipment from anyone who posts things like the above
I find it kinda odd that this M83 review has been given to someone with only two reviews in as many years under her belt
and both of them weren't great...
the review was by
http://drownedinsound.com/users/Chris_Trout
but he didn't want to put his name to it (hence the comments by him above), so it went under a different name which we use in occasions when writers feel their work has been 'butchered' due to removing things about buggering horses...which seems sweetly ironic, given that the album itself could really have done with being edited down a bit...
Um, what?
The review was butchered/edited "due to removing things about buggering horses"? Really? As far as I can tell from the unedited version (this seems to be a working link: http://misterchristrout.com/posts/2011/10/m83-hurry-were-dreaming/ ) there's quite a bit more to it than that; some of the editing makes the whole thing considerably less comprehensible, the removal of the first "It is a truth universally... " for example, and certainly less witty and thought-provoking. The Jean-MIchel Jarre/horse fucking sentence is pretty funny and very obvioulsy not in the least bit serious: did you really remove it for the sake of propriety!? Because if you did, that's kind of staggering. The stuff about relativism barely hangs together without the U2/infibulation gag, which might be shocking but makes its point.
What, as dadooronronron asked, gives?
okay fair enough
apologies
Aplologies...bloody stupid netbook...
Album quality and ethics/casual racism aside, that line about Jean-Michel Jarre made me spill my coffee laughing!
I'm fully prepared for this to be a mess.
I think I may actually be looking forward to it *more* because of it.
Saturdays = Youth was always going to be an impossible mountain to climb again. It might not be as big and impressive next to its brand new double-album brother, but it was near perfectly formed, vertical slabs of grand Pop wrought from a shoegaze bedrock.
I have a feeling Hurry Up... will be beset with landslides, but each miss-step will feel more like an adventure while looking for more heart-stoppers like 'Midnight City'.
I knew the moment Gonzalez brought up Melon Collie... as a touch point that he was gearing himself up for a fall. But if it's a spectacular tumble I can forgive the hubris.
Holy Christ that review is shite.
Half-baked musings on 'cool' and incomprehensible gabble. I don't know which is worse: the album or the review.
So Pitchfork gave it 9.1
Who are we to believe? Guess I'll have to just buy it and make up my own mind.
I think its great.
Proggy. Over the top. Sumptuous. Highs and lows, Yeah maybe needs a bit of editing. Its a bit of a mess at times but its gorgeous mess. I'll give it an 8.
Having read
the read the original piece I can see why the author was displeased! Crucial sections were removed, which makes me think that DiS should have maybe sought an alternative review if they disliked fundamental elements so much?
Happy to say
this review is so far off the mark it's unreal.
Hurry Up... is stupendous, ridiculous, near farcical. I wouldn't, couldn't change a thing about it. 80s extravagance taken to a new level of hair-raising excess. Joy as a physical force. Moments of Eno-era U2 distilled into a spoonful of sunlight and shot into space. Magical fucking frogs. MAGICAL FUCKING FROGS. MOMMYS WILL BECOME DADDYS. GIANT CUPCAKES.
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