Fantasy - M83: Review
M83
are a French electronica and rock project who have spent the past 20 years building out a diverse catalog of music including sounds of synth pop, shoegaze, electronica, and ambient into both dense compositions and simpler pop songs.
Review by Lav:
I love M83. While almost everyone agrees on the merit of their most acclaimed and successful project, 2011's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, the trio of albums they released in the lead-up make for one of the best musical runs of the 2000s. Unfortunately, the only M83 album I've actually had the pleasure of covering as a critic is the one that almost everyone agrees is their worst, 2016's Junk. Despite the 7-year gap in releases, I was still incredibly excited for what M83 would deliver in their next offering. While I'm mostly positive about what they deliver on Fantasy I can also say that a bit of editing and trimming down could have made an even better project out of this.
Some of the reasons I like this album were exactly the ones I expected. I was already familiar with lead single Oceans Niagara which gets off to a pretty triumphant start but manages to maintain its nocturnal neon bliss throughout like so many good M83 songs before it. It's also immediately followed on the album by Amnesia, another thrilling rush of a song with dense synth layers and cascading lead vocals separated by patient moments in-between that help set up one dynamic climax after another.
Later on in the record we get a pair of tracks that Hurry Up fans will find very familiar. Laura is probably my favorite of the deep cuts with soaring synth leads contrasting the washed-out vocals which feel so distant despite how intense of a performance is given. I also love Sunny Boy which comes punctuated by these stiff drum machine beats that are synth-pop inspired in a MUCH more classic sense. The reverby hook backed by great supporting vocals is a combination of infectious and instantaneous that really clicks with me.
Some other highlights managed to surprise me in ways I wasn't expecting though. Radar, Far, Gone was a surprise that kicks off with primarily acoustic guitar in the instrumental. The full force of instrumentation does eventually come into play and though it's not the loudest or most epic conclusion of any track here I like it regardless. I'm also pretty interested in the title track which has a slick bassline and catchy chanted vocal lines that feel like they blend together Junk's songwriting with a genuinely funk and soul-inspired take on the band's sound.
The biggest change on this record comes compositionally where the band turns to more expansive songs than ever before throughout the record. Whether or not this is a reaction to Junk receiving mixed reviews for its more pop-oriented songwriting is unclear but it comes through with mixed reviews regardless. The best of these are the ones that don't drown in their grandiocity and provide great songwriting moment to moment. Earth To Sea has a synth lead that feels straight out of a Future Islands song and develops it into this spacey eruption of glittery instrumentation that I really love.
Occasionally the album has some great ideas but doesn't always do a great job of translating them into great songs. Deceiver has a glorified ambient opening that really doesn't help it build up any momentum. Thankfully, once the drums kick in it's the start of a run of some of the stickiest sounds on the album which makes the song a breeze despite no actual lyrics showing up until well into the second half. Kool Nuit starts off with these really isolated and kind of chilling lead vocals over baroque instrumentation but completely abandons that style to shift into something much more stiff and synthetic. While I do see merit in both style the song basically starts its whole build over again from scratch after the transition and the resulting runtime feels pretty indulgent.
There aren't a whole ton of individual moments that necessarily underwhelm given how interesting much of the band's soundplay is, but over the course of 70 minutes moments like the instrumental opener and Us And The Rest do feel too spaced out and start to blend together with other better songs. The only song I flat out don't really like is unfortunately the closer Dismemberment Bureau which does ultimately build to something pretty compelling but there are weird and off-putting moments along the way like the booming drums and effect-laced vocals.
In a sense, this album delivered to me exactly what I was hoping for in more M83. It leans into some of their best qualities and the layers of cinematic, neon-tinged synths are present on nearly every song. But too much of a good thing might have taken over and with one long instrumental stretch after another extending these songs and as a result, the entire album out to over an hour might be a bit much. For a band that's no stranger to long record, this one might have gotten away from them resulting in a pretty good album that could have been great. 7/10
For more shoegaze, check out my review of Parannoul's After The Magic here
