{"id":41004,"date":"2008-07-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/saturdaysyouth\/"},"modified":"2008-07-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-09T00:00:00","slug":"saturdaysyouth","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/saturdaysyouth\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturdays=Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the risk of losing some credibility, I\u2019m just going to be honest: I\u2019ve never especially liked My Bloody Valentine. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

I am fully aware of their contributions to popular music\/culture, and I think that Loveless<\/i> is a really interesting album. Of course, it has a permanent spot on my reference shelf. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean I enjoy listening to it. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lou Reed\u2019s Metal Machine Music<\/i> is also an interesting album, and I think Rolling Stone<\/i> called it the worst album of all time. I\u2019d tend to agree with that assessment. If there\u2019s someone out there who has made it all the way through Reed\u2019s horrendous musical experiment, I\u2019d like to hear from you, shake your hand, and then maybe punch you in the mouth. Point is that interesting<\/i> music isn\u2019t necessarily listenable<\/i> music. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

My Bloody Valentine\u2019s Loveless<\/i>, although not one of my favorite records, is a remarkable musical exploration of texture, reverb, and noise; elements that would become the main ingredients for shoegaze. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Some would argue that when it comes to pop music, everything\u2019s been done already. Fair enough. It does seem that the best new music is the music that most effectively revives, reinvents, and regurgitates pop\u2019s greatest influences, while adding some degree of forward-thinking musical perspective. That\u2019s not an altogether bad thing. The results are often fantastic (The Strokes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Interpol, etc.). If it really has all been done before, then it\u2019s just a matter of which artist\/band has a better record collection. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

M83\u2019s excellent new album Saturdays=Youth<\/i> is pop revivalism at its best.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album cover sort of says it all. A nod to John Hughes, the cover depicts eight hysterically dramatic and contemplative teenagers posing for what would make a most awesome poster for The Breakfast Club Part II.<\/i> <\/o:p><\/p>\n

France<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>\u2019s Anthony Gonzalez, the twenty-six year-old guru behind M83, has crafted a mesmerizing album loaded with \u201880s musical and cinematic imagery all wrapped up in a perfect sonic shoegaze wonderland. On Saturdays=Youth<\/i>, M83\u2019s fifth album, Gonzalez shares vocal duties with Morgan Kibby, who lends her rich, breathy, and stunning pipes for many of the album\u2019s best tracks. The gorgeously restrained vocals combined with M83\u2019s savvy use of keyboards, guitars and reverb-drenched textures make this a record that sort of transports the listener into a dreamlike world \u00e0 la The Cure\u2019s Disintegration. <\/i> <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The piano-driven tracks, like album opener \u201cYou, Appearing\u201d and \u201cSkin Of The Night,\u201d provide some fantastically mopey moments and are placed delicately between the album\u2019s glistening pop anthems like \u201cKim & Jesse\u201d and \u201cGraveyard Girl.\u201d The album\u2019s first single, \u201cCouleurs,\u201d is mostly instrumental and it\u2019s, like, the raddest New Order song since \u201cPerfect Kiss.\u201d Other highlights such as the pulsating four-and-a-half minute crescendo \u201cHighway Of Endless Dreams\u201d and the heartbreaking \u201cToo Late\u201d show off Gonzalez\u2019s musical vision and keyboard wizardry. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Melodrama is blatant on Saturdays=Youth<\/i> and will likely turn some casual listeners off. Especially the spoken word on \u201cGraveyard Girl,\u201d where the youthful narrator laments that \u201cThe cemetery is my home, I want to be a part of it.\u201d Admittedly, it comes off as overdone at times. But you definitely get the sense that it was intentional. That\u2019s what\u2019s so likeable about the album: it\u2019s a sophisticated, charismatic, and deliberate throwback to \u201880s musical and cultural nostalgia and that variety of nostalgia requires melodrama, lots of it. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Hats off to you, Mr. Gonzalez. Not sure where you can take M83 from here, but I wouldn\u2019t be upset if you wanted to do more of the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":29428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8235],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41004","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-m83","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41004"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41004"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}