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M83 - Let The Dawn Heal Us

Started by Shoulders?-Stomach!, August 09, 2020, 02:09:01 PM

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Shoulders?-Stomach!

Have to say this is still one of my favourite albums. Fair play to him for breaking out and doing Junk which wasn't my thing at all (I will never listen to it again) but was totally apart from the epic synth-rock/post-rock universe this album is set in.



Like a lot of great albums the cover makes a statement and truly reflects the contents. The album runs the gamut of emotions and does so nakedly, it is vulnerable, very little in it is cynical or just a product of a musician producing something because they can. The vast majority of it feels as though you are by him in the moment, raw. There are extraordinary lows and even the highs seem fraught, glimpsed in the unknown unchanging maelstrom around it.

The innocence and soul bearing wasn't as evidence in the - overall - more mechanical debut album, but the authorial voice really stands out, really helps you navigate the first few tracks which jumps around a little, before its real urban horror begins.

One of its greatest achievements is taking you on a ride while never really feeling like it is stepping out of its geographical, emotional, tonal universe.

Anyway, the artist is synonymous with soundtracks and background music for epic set pieces but here is a work that really has a gigantic personal stamp on it that deserves attention.

BlodwynPig

Before the Dawn Heals Us

...

Only album I haven't got on digital, so will have a listen, thanks for bringing this up

Emma Raducanu

My midnight airport run music of choice. I'll leave that with you. That or Mum's yesterday was dramatic, today is okay.

shagatha crustie

Strong recommendation, I'll need to give this a listen. The only M83 album I ever fully got to grips with was the awfully titled Saturdays = Youth, which I was quite fond of for a while despite a lot of filler. Then the ubiquity of 'Midnight City' and the mental link with Made In Chelsea adverts put me off checking out any of their other stuff. Generally I find them very prone to overreaching, and using hugeness of sound to disguise a lack of other quality factors.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: shagatha crustie on August 09, 2020, 03:16:50 PM
Strong recommendation, I'll need to give this a listen. The only M83 album I ever fully got to grips with was the awfully titled Saturdays = Youth, which I was quite fond of for a while despite a lot of filler. Then the ubiquity of 'Midnight City' and the mental link with Made In Chelsea adverts put me off checking out any of their other stuff. Generally I find them very prone to overreaching, and using hugeness of sound to disguise a lack of other quality factors.

Saturdays = Youth was when it went started to go wrong in my opinion. Tilted towards referential nostalgia instead of going for the jugular. Before The Dawn Heals Us constantly demands your attention. It's a great achievement in the process of proving electronic compositions can be every bit as close and heartfelt as any other form of music.

The other great thing is how the album exhibits that synths and vocals really invite strong harmonising with the right production. Although my own work Vale isn't as fraught I learned a lot by enjoying and absorbing the great harmonies from this album.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on August 09, 2020, 03:37:50 PM
Saturdays = Youth was when it went started to go wrong in my opinion. Tilted towards referential nostalgia instead of going for the jugular. Before The Dawn Heals Us constantly demands your attention. It's a great achievement in the process of proving electronic compositions can be every bit as close and heartfelt as any other form of music.

The other great thing is how the album exhibits that synths and vocals really invite strong harmonising with the right production. Although my own work Vale isn't as fraught I learned a lot by enjoying and absorbing the great harmonies from this album.

Unbelievable, I was tempted to copy your post and stick the cover art to Vale in the place of that M83 one...spooooky. WAVELENGTHS

The Mollusk

Great words Shouldy.

I remember buying this album when it come out, and it was the same weekend that my parents went on holiday and let me have the house to myself for the first time ever. I was 18. First thing I did was roll a big spliff and lie on my bed and listen to "Moonchild" on full volume. I gotta admit it was ages - months even - before I ever got around to really paying attention to the rest of the album because that song was just fucking EVERYTHING.

I dug it out very recently, funnily enough, after ignoring it entirely for over a decade, and was worried that the concurrent years of increasing cynicism would have eroded my love of this sort of thing entirely (I cannot bloody stand stuff like Red Sparowes or Explosions Up Your Arse or any music which describes way too much of their vision of an instrumental song in its title, which this album very much does) but was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

rue the polywhirl

Consider me a massive fan of everything Saturday = Youth and afterwards. This album is very good although its epicness is a bit 'broad strokes', like a thrash of giant wailing duplo soundscape blocks and I tend to prefer the more fledged out, songier songwriting approach from most of their later albums.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: rue the polywhirl on August 09, 2020, 11:09:25 PM
Consider me a massive fan of everything Saturday = Youth and afterwards. This album is very good although its epicness is a bit 'broad strokes', like a thrash of giant wailing duplo soundscape blocks and I tend to prefer the more fledged out, songier songwriting approach from most of their later albums.
I feel the same - I got on board on hearing 'Kim and Jessie' in Fopp around the time it came out, and as time has gone on I've found I enjoyed their synth-pop side more. For whatever reason 'Before The Dawn Heals Us' has never worked for me on any deep level beyond the odd highlight - in constrast to feelings expressed above, I'd rate 'Junk' as the album I go back to most, though there's a fantastic single album to be culled from the double CD flab of 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming'.

I'm a fan of these generally, but dip in and out of different eras. I will go against the apparent grain and say that Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is fantastic - a great album, and one deserving of two discs. It manages to capture a sense of nostalgia with a vague feeling without turning into the musical equivalent of Peter Kay or pastiche, as Junk might be accused of.

The only album I can think of in recent years that captures a similar feeling is The Suburbs by Arcade Fire. A vague set of themes that tie together to create that feeling of lost youth - which both are aiming to capture in different ways, and both succeed in. In the case of both bands, I'm not much for the broad brush emotion style either though (parallels with AF's debut maybe). Saturdays=Youth is a bit more like that, in that it seems to paint the picture with big choruses, where even on HU,WD the pop bangers seems a little bit more subtle. Even Midnight City, which is about as mainstream synthpop as they will get (ignoring Junk, because it is simply not very good) is a credible bit of work in its own right and doesn't feel like it's trying too hard, or is shoehorning cultural references in (E.g. Steve Vai on Junk). I think the difference from S=Y is JMJ producing and having a guiding hand in concept and writing. The back story is that Gonzalez wanted to make something ambitious, and moved countries to do so. I think it would be harsh to accuse the record in not succeeding in its aims, even if you do not like the idea of what he was going for.

I have dipped into their (his) more soundscapey output for background music mostly, but I think it deserves further investigation.  DSVII has been on heavy rotation, and has prompted me to dip in and out of the older output. It's on HU,WD where the two worlds most effectively combine though. Combined, both discs are only about 70 minutes, and the interludes all work in linking together the more 'song' tracks. I've even stopped skipping the one with the frog. It's a genuinely great record that set out to achieve something big, and actually delivered it. 

Bazooka

HUWD is his best work, 'Wait' alone is worth two discs,put it on both. I honestly haven't listened to Junk in ages, and deserves a listen again.  I found Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts at one of the only record shops in Beijing, and gave it to a mate because I he has a player and I don't.