Can’t stop, I can’t stop, yeah
Can’t stop, I can’t stop, yeah
M83 creates a kind of anthemic electronic sound with their music. It’s made up of multilayered synths, thundering percussion, and, when the track isn’t an instrumental, high spacy vocals and/or massive chorales. This album was interesting. On the whole, I wouldn’t say I found any of it particularly bad, but there’s also nothing that really stands out. It’s just kind of wallpapery with a few exceptions. I like the loud-quiet-loud dynamic of * (yes, they’re so pretentious they have tracks titled ‘*’) and the way it build to just this explosive kind of cut, kind of I Want You (She’s So Heavy). The two minute Can’t Stop is a breathy little pop masterpiece. And Car Chase Terror is a dark, grim and claustrophobic track with really creepy spoken word clips over it. But the epic ending, the ten minute Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun, doesn’t reach the transcendence it would like to and it, like a lot of the other music here, just kind of meanders about aimlessly, never sure where it’s going or what it’s saying. 2 ½ stars.
tl;dr – electronic album isn’t nearly as transcendentally beautiful as it wants, but some tracks work. 2 ½ stars.