When a band proudly announces their intention to release a double album and profusely swear that it’s their “most ambitious project yet”, a flashing red light tends to go off somewhere in the brain. As the Red Hot Chili Peppers so shamelessly demonstrated with 2006’s Stadium Arcadium, the double album concept often leads to a depressing lack of coherence and a host of tracks that should never have escaped B-side status.
With that in mind, huge praise must go to M83 chief Anthony Gonzalez for making every single second of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming mean something. The pulsating opening strains of ‘Intro’ have barely had time to register before Zola Jesus turns up to add a touch of gothic elegance to proceedings. Her presence is note-perfect, as is the immediate tonal shift to ‘Midnight City’ and ‘Reunion’, the former boasting the most wildly ostentatious saxophone solo that you’re likely to hear for years.
Gonzalez has gone on record that this is his most personal work to date, a claim that appears to be backed up by what’s on display, from the raw emotion of ‘Wait’ and ‘Splendor’ to the sheer bravado of ‘Echoes Of Mine’ and ‘This Bright Flash’. Curiously, it’s the one track that Gonzalez has expressed some degree of reservation about that resonates above all others.
The music of M83 has always been about capturing a sense of wonder, of reaching out and embracing something extraordinary. Never has this been more evident than in the form of ‘Raconte-Moi Une Historie’, in which a five year-old child (producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen’s daughter) regales the listener with a tale that could only work coming from the mouth of pure innocence. The result is both beautiful and strangely heartbreaking, tinged with the bittersweet nostalgia that permeated 2008’s Saturdays = Youth. Gonzalez may fear that the song will divide opinion, but it is the most perfect illustration of his artistry that he could hope to create.
In an age where the album carries less and less weight and attention spans are waning, the very nature of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is something of a gamble, but one that pays off hugely. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.