M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

(Naïve)

French dream-pop auteur Anthony Gonzalez’s last album, 2008’s magnificent Saturdays = Youth, well deserved this double-album follow-up, which came trailered by a triumphant teaser video – all flowers in bloom, jets in flight and misty city skylines – befitting a Hollywood movie. But while the tune which soundtracked that clip – ridiculously epic penultimate track ‘Echoes of Mine’ – and others deliver, much else distracts from what might have worked better as another single-disc set.

From the massive crescendo of ‘Intro’, featuring Zola Jesus, through 80s cheese-pop homaging electro banger ‘Midnight City’ and the shoegazey haze of ‘Wait’, it starts well. Then things get a bit wishy-washy until the sky-scraping final ten minutes, by which point something akin to spine-tingle fatigue has set in, leaving the impression of a strong album watered-down by several should-be B-sides and bonus tracks.