It’s a completely instrumental one- or two-note drone, but it’s hard not to picture Freddie Mercury breaking through from the afterlife and operatically declaring, “It’s a beautiful Day-hay!” “Sunny Boy Part 2,” the penultimate song that precedes “Dismemberment Bureau,” is the descent following the album’s crescendo. A minute later this romantic facade falls away as the orchestral instrumentation is suddenly replaced by 8-bit bloops and choppy drumming, going into a full-on electronic freak-out and then seemingly into the heart of a wind tunnel. French female vocals enter the picture just before the two-minute mark, and the song turns jazzy, with light woodsy percussion. Its first movement is orchestral and slightly mysterious, extenuating the minor notes. Following another ruminative song, “Laura,” the album begins its final build-up with “Sunny Boy.” The dream-pop song goes 0 to 60 at the 90-second mark and arrives at the foot of the album’s epic magnum opus, “Kool Nuit,” which translates as “Cool Night” from French. It’s not a traditional dance track, though, as it cuts away from the driving melody. The melody pitches up a step and spacey synths enter the picture. That’s followed by alien-sound synths and hand drumming, developing at a glacial pace and the beat not dropping until nearly three minutes in.ĭistant chants begin the title track before a disco rhythm section and pan flute enter the picture. If the song sounds like twilight, following tune “Deceiver ” cements that notion by starting with a morning birdsong. Gonzalez pushed the sweet blend of soft acoustic guitar strumming and piano chords to the forefront on “Radar, Far, Gone.” Take away the light synths and angelic vocalizations, and this could pass for a Coldplay song circa 2004. On this one, like on much of the album, guitar takes the lead and is more noticeable than on the past couple M83 albums. The latter is poppier pushes past six and a half minutes. The five-and-a-half-minute former song, underscored by twinkling piano keys, doesn’t take long to explode in a cacophonous mix of synths and shouted vocals. “Us and the Rest” and “Earth to Sea” both recall some of the deeper cuts from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, where Gonzalez seems to be stuck in a daydream. That leads into the aforementioned “Ocean’s Niagara,” with its two words. No words are spoken, nor are they needed. The album opens on the wistful “Water Deep,” which begins with a sole acoustic guitar repeating the same progression and feels like the break of dawn until the wall of sound descends in a haze and transports listeners somewhere new. The music is largely electronic, but it feels organic. The record’s strength is how naturally each song fits snugly into the next and how it unfurls. “I’m in love with he darkness/ It’s just a sound/ Nothing wrong with some sadness,” Gonzalez sings on one of the only songs on the album with a traditional narrative structure. It’s equally uptempo and nostalgic, with a reverb-laden guitar riff, squelchy synth, string-like keyboard runs and chorus-effect vocals, including female vocals probably courtesy of bandmate Kaela Sinclair. The following song, “Amnesia,” is the other album song that may find a home in bite-sized single culture. Few music artists do this as well as Gonzalez in M83. The song is meant to connect you with your own sense of longing, with you filling in your own blanks in a narrative. “Ocean’s Niagara,” for instance, has just two words, “beyond adventure!” scattered throughout guitar-propelled melodies and sonic washes of synth. There are lyrics scattered throughout the album-and Gonzalez has called this album his most personal yet-but they’re often buried in the mix and serve more as an additional instrument, sonic texture or even a directive than actual story lines. All of that is tied together in signature M83 sounds: gauzy synths, crescendoing choruses and heart-stopping sonic emotion.
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