Read any review on Saturdays=Youth, the fifth studio effort from French one-man electro band M83, and it won’t be but a few lines down until a comparison to a John Hughes flick is encountered. Now granted, the album’s blunt pubescent moniker and juvenile sleeve, featuring various adolescents (one a ringer for Molly Ringwald too) in youthful garbs and pouty poses, do little to contradict that summation, but I challenge you to find any sounds as richly textured and as magnificently atmospheric as these on any cheese ball 80’s soundtrack. Sure, there is a certain air of nostalgia that fills each of Anthony Gonzalez’s (M83’s mastermind) lush earmarks. For example, if you didn’t know any better, you’d think “Couleurs” with its cascading drums machines and wall of stratified keyboards was a hidden gem off of New Order’s early catalog. But Gonzalez’s unapologetic retro approach, channeling the best parts of New Order, My Bloody Valentine, and Air, is ohh so succulent to hear. “Kim & Jesse” with its lofty layered keyboards subtly abounding over the most honeyed unintelligible lyrics will induce a slight weightless effect on listeners.
It’s not a stretch calling Gonzalez’s use of opulent multiple track synthesizing over incomprehensible vocals as a synthesized shoe gaze, or shoe gaze sans foot pedal of sorts. Sometimes though, as on opener “You, Appearing”, with its 1:20 snail pace electro that has a meditative trance potential, Gonzalez can overindulge. For the most part though, he succeeds in creating dreamy, cumulonimbus -esque sounds capes; case in point-- “Graveyard Girl” –a tune which swirls in with kaleidoscopic dream pop splendor, achieving instant saccharine moments of reminisces and melancholy, like tearing a page from your Senior yearbook.
Gonzalez’s was undoubtedly lent a hand throughout this textured affair. Saturdays=Youth was recorded with the help of Ken Thomas, who has worked with the likes of Sigur Rós, The Sugarcubes, and Suede, to name a few. Producing behemoth Ewan Pearson (Bloc Party, The Rapture, Ladytron) also stepped in to do some of the knob tweaking. Their inclusion on this effort helped reel in Gonzalez’s knack for sonic exploration, creating easier to digest harmonies and hooks.
Their glossy production effect is most evident on the album’s more effeminate tracks-- “Skin of The Night” and “Up”—which feature the luxuriant vocals of Morgan Kibby (from LA band The Romanovs) --and come off sounding like a cross between Massive Attack and the Cocteau Twins.
Yes, Saturdays=Youth does tap into that nostalgia factor. There is much here for those with a kitsch fascination for Rubix cube to like. Oodles of synthy synthyness everywhere. But the kicker is, Saturdays=Youth is done so well, so lavishly, that it cancels out any 80’s cynicism that can follow it.
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