Ask Boards of Canada to make a My Bloody Valentine record, and you might end up with a product sounding something like France's M83. This is not to say that M83 is a ripoff of either of these groups. Rather, the music of bandleader Anthony Gonzalez owes a lot to the lush soundscapes of the shoegaze movement and pursues these influences with the electronic instrumentation of an Intelligent Dance Music group like Boards.
And, as one can probably tell by the title and album cover, Saturdays=Youth is a tribute to Gonzalez's childhood -- the music, the cinema and the overall sense of immortality prevalent in the 1980s. The album acts as a sort of soundtrack to a nonexistent John Hughes film, going back and forth between background score music and upbeat pop singles for the emotional climaxes. The group of frustrated teens that appears on the cover resembles something like a The Breakfast Club crew -- complete with a Molly Ringwald look-alike.
To accomplish this feeling of nostalgia, Saturdays=Youth looks back to some of Gonzalez's favorite bands from the 80s. The music is heavily influenced by acts like Cocteau Twins, Tangerine Dream and Tears for Fears. As such, listeners may experience strong blasts from the past at certain points. This is certainly a different direction for M83, an act that normally focuses on sparse, liberated tracks rather than the tightened pop-song structure of Saturdays.
The opener, "You, Appearing," works to draw the listener in slowly with gentle pianos and electronics before exploding into the bubbly Tears for Fears send-up "Kim & Jessie," a tribute to two young lovers. Following this is "Skin of the Night," an ethereal piece extremely reminiscent of Cocteau Twins. Guest vocalist Morgan Kibby, who makes several contributions on Saturdays, does her best Elizabeth Fraser impression to complete the reference.
The following tracks continue this trend, dividing time between upbeat songs and atmospheric instrumentals. "Graveyard Girl" is another pop single, using a banging drum beat and sweeping electronic strings to accomplish youthful feelings of immortality. A spoken-word interlude by an angst-ridden teen, whose speech captures the frustrations of adolescence, completes the song. "Couleurs" is the album's centerpiece, an 8-minute electronics mini-epic that sounds like Gonzalez gave Daft Punk a try at the 80s scene. "We Own the Sky" may be the album's strongest track. Using a heavy drum machine beat, fuzzy synthesizers and a ghostly duet for vocals, it builds to a sweetly emotional ballad.
"Dark Moves of Love" serves as the final climax and combines all of the album's basic elements -- heavy beats, ringing guitars, blasting keyboards, chanted lyrics and spoken word -- to create a final blast before the soothing, repetitious closer, "Midnight Souls Still Remain." This last track isn't so much a song as it is an 11-minute echo of the album's youthful emotions.
All in all, Saturdays=Youth makes for a successfully nostalgic experiment for Gonzalez and crew. Only one track -- the creepily annoying "Up!" -- stands out as a moment of weakness. The remaining 10 tracks all contain their moments of beauty, and Saturdays concludes as one of the most accessible albums from a strong band. 3
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