M83 - Midnight City
The long awaited M83 album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, recently surfaced in a listen-able quality and so I’ve got a chance to listen to it. First listen was at a friends house, late at night, passed out on a giant beanbag, lodged in the attic rafters, in a beer and coffee induced sleep-coma. As the music flowed over to me I went into a kind of trance. Reminiscing of the first time I heard Run Into Flowers - the track which got me into M83 - and then the day Saturdays = Youth was released and how excited and impressed I was by the sounds, I listened for days…
The opening tracks of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming brought back some strong, vivid memories, but not just memories of the experience of first hearing their previous music, but a stream of flash-backs of moments in the recent years of my life. Mostly memories of being at university in an exciting but occasionally lonely environment; on my own in my room preparing to leave the house for a party or a night out somewhere in the city. Experiencing some synthetic stimulant and embracing the strong emotions and feelings of heart racing calmness, Falling asleep with the window open to the stars without a thought of anything apart from a sure feeling of contentment.
For me Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is more than just another album by M83 to be digested and put to the side. So far it feels almost like a key to a past. I don’t quite know how to explain it but it is definitely very special. The fact that is it so new, but can feel so old and familiar to become immediately acquainted with some of my most intimate past memories says a lot to me about the fabric this album is crafted from and the skill of Anthony Gonzalez as an artist. It provides nostalgia without a physical link to the past.
Even the name and album cover suggest something ethereal, immaterial, melancholically blissful… As if the listener is late for a date with the unimaginable and non-existent.
I’ve always wanted to see the band and finally I will, on the 1st of December. I really hope it’s a swell night and I can be utterly at one with the music and the environment.
