Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.

iTunes Review

Released 10 years after M83’s eponymous debut, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is a double album mixed by famed Beck and Air producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen. Before recording these songs, M83’s Anthony Gonzales relocated to Los Angeles from France, and he wanted the two discs to mirror one another like twin siblings. With Zola Jesus' Nika Roza Danilova making a cameo on the opening “Intro”, the song sounds like it shares DNA with early Cocteau Twins. Its counterpart tune, “My Tears Are Becoming a Sea”, is equally grandiose and sprawling as it works in a symphonic splendor on par with recordings by Mercury Rev. Gonzalez proves that you can take the boy out of France but not vice versa on the standout cut “Midnight City”, which plays as if Parisian pop darlings Air had been touched by the hand of early-‘90s shoegazing. Its counter song, “New Map”, implements more skittering keyboard parts, but the tune’s stylish cosmopolitan savvy definitely plays with the dominant genes of “Midnight City”. “Soon My Friend” and “Outro” exemplify the epically orchestrated ascensions that make this album so ambitious.