M83 / Saturdays = Youth

Artist - M83

Title - Saturdays = Youth

Hometown - France

Label - Mute

Street Date - Out Now

RIYL - You curious people who can't seem to shake the 80's

The Hits: Hitting this CD will not make it any better.

Richter Magnitude Rating: Light

Coincidence or quality control? My car stereo refuses to play this disc. I insert the disc and it instantly spits it out again as if to say "BLARGHHHHH - no thanks!"

My computer however is a slut, she will play anything at least once, assuming I can make it through the whole record. Saturdays= Youth isn't an easy comfortable listen for me. I feel like I accidentally put in a Sixteen Candles soundtrack or some crappy synthy wussy 80's band. The Thompson Twins? The Dream Academy? Oh....oh my...much to my horror it appears that according to the band's MySpace page that is exactly what they are going for. Ugh... it actually says this:

"If the doomy synthetic romance of his earlier work hinted at a fetish for Eighties goth staples such as Sisters of Mercy and The Cure, this album's chiming astro-pop finds Gonzalez taking a stroll on the sunnier side of the decade. Main influences for the album are English bands such as Tears For Fears and Cocteau Twins, as well as classic John Hughes teen movies such as "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles" (The red-haired Molly Ringwald look-alike on the cover is no mistake). "

This is pretty much my worse nightmare. Unlike VH1 - I hate the 80s. Gone are the things I once loved about M83. There is no longer dramatic great swells on intensity or textured and exotic cinematic landscapes. In its place is wet weak sounding (reverbed out) drum machine farts along side like whale-like cries recreated by a keyboard and wait, is that a guitar solo or a simulated guitar solo? Either way I am no more excited by the occasional Aaron Spelling soap opera like theme music. More than half of the songs are over 5 minutes long which makes this record feel like it drags on forever, longer than a John Hughes movie.

Eno to Enya - my car is onto something. No thanks.