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The 15 Best M83 Songs

With over a decade of hyper-sensory dreamgaze to their credit, the diversity of their oeuvre is often overlooked

Anthony Gonzalez of M83
Photo: Mute

M83’s endearing tendency to go for the jugular every single time has allowed their entire catalogue to be easily lumped into a staggering pile of grandiosity. Yet, with over a decade of hyper-sensory dreamgaze to their credit, the diversity of their oeuvre is often overlooked. The group was originally formed in 2001 by Anthony Gonzalez and Nicholas Fromangeau, and their humble beginnings in big-beat sentimentality and introverted minimalism shifted dramatically with 2003’s Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. While this masterful synthetic odyssey was the beginning of the end for Gonzalez and Fromangeau (Fromangeau would leave to spearhead Team Ghost, which is worth a spin for Dead Cities loyalists), Gonzalez evolved further with the sparkling neon space-gaze of 2005’s Before the Dawn Heals Us. The wistful Saturdays=Youth and the arena-shaking juggernaut Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming introduced M83 to the masses, but after several years of being out of print, the band’s first three albums were re-released on CD, vinyl, and digital download last week. Mute Records will also digitally release remix and B-sides collections for Dead Cities and Before the Dawn Heals Us on September 9th. To celebrate, we took a look back at M83’s catalogue and compiled a list of their very best tracks.

Editor’s Note: Listen to the entire M83 playlist on Spotify.


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15. “Cyborg”

“Cyborg,” from 2003’s unnerving Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, is a mini tour de force of 16-bit innocence that morphs abruptly into a veritable shoegaze horror show of isolating feedback. Anthony Gonzalez and longtime collaborator Nicholas Fromangeau would part ways shortly after the release of the album, and “Cyborg” was the last time M83 would venture into such direct paranoia.


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14. “Skin of the Night”

Driven by guest singer and instrumentalist Morgan Kibby, “Skin of the Night,” from 2008’s Saturdays=Youth, is a serpentine, synth-driven siren song reminiscent of Treasure-era Cocteau Twins, only if Elizabeth Fraser were a lovelorn ghost haunting a downtown parking garage.


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13. “Moonchild”

Whereas M83’s previous output dabbled in the possibly endless universe within us, the exhilarating “Moonchild,” from Before the Dawn Heals Us, immediately explodes that concept, blasting to the nether regions of the solar system via a relentless banshee wail of what sounds like the collision of every instrument in M83’s arsenal. For the first time, M83 was epic.

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12. “I’m Happy She Said”

A mournful organ and skittery electro hi-hat are countered by the warm optimism of a glockenspiel amid a flurry of aggressive breakbeats. Everything ultimately segues into silence only to be reborn moments later into the devolving static from whence it came. It’s all there, folks. The full experience: the poignant microcosm that is fleeting teenage love.


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11. “Intro”

Guiding us into the reverie of M83’s conceptual vision, the intro to 2011’s double album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, utilizes a gentle synth line periodically ignited by the unabashed yelps of Gonzalez himself. “Carry on, carry on,” he cries desperately into the ether. By the time Zola Jesus drops in for a cameo, “Intro” has already erupted into unforgettable stadium-rock heaven.


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10. “Teen Angst”

Beneath the call-to-arms merriment of “Teen Angst” lies a poignancy that’s often eluded Gonzalez when he’s revisited the well of spiraling teenage anxieties on subsequent releases. M83 has spent so much time successfully re-conceptualizing nostalgia over the past decade that it’s easy to overlook the moments in which the band actually takes legitimate risks. With the fearless “Teen Angst,” Gonzalez challenges us to realize that, no matter how shiny the packaging, these are rarely the memories we want. The real angst comes not from who we are, but who we could have been.


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9. “Run Into Flowers”

Dead Cities’s “Run Into Flowers” is a beacon of frantic hope amid layers of synth-driven anxiety; imagine Sonic the Hedgehog approaching the gates of heaven. Not much else on the album is as frolic-friendly, but M83’s lyrics, which seem to suggest that the best cure for existential dread is a good chemically induced romp through the daisies, suggest that any reprieve from reality is ultimately short-lived anyway.

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8. “Unrecorded”

From the dry crackle on the opening synth to the soft percolations that bubble beneath the organ, all of “Unrecorded”—one-half desolate scope, the other half elegiac sorrow—feels primed for decay. It’s a testament to the meticulous craftsmanship of M83’s Dead Cities that when the song ceremoniously crosses over into its second-half dirge, this abrupt bait and switch comes across as a natural evolution within the world of the album and not just an arbitrary tonal shift. The despair that concludes “Unrecorded” never seems less than inevitable.


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7. “Midnight City”

With its helplessly transcendent chorus of synthesized yelps, 2011’s “Midnight City” represents the best components of latter-day M83 crystallized into an electrifying four minutes of pop perfection. Rarely has a single functioned so confidently as a mission statement for a band’s growth and direction.


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6. “You, Appearing”

“You, Appearing” sets such a contextual precedent for Saturdays=Youth right out of the gate that it’s impossible to separate the rest of the album from its ghostly opening spell. With a subtle meandering piano line with notes so heavy they act as tethers against the swirling synths that threaten to sweep the song away entirely, “You, Appearing” is as close as M83 has ever come to capturing a legitimate dream experience. Every song that follows on the album boasts a residual layer of its hallucinatory fantasia.


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5. “Outro”

The most regal moment on the grandiose Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, “Outro” begins with a wandering ambient swell, triumphant but oddly muted, as if a great distance is growing between the listener and whatever majesty lies on the horizon. Almost two minutes pass before the music fades out completely. It’s an uncomfortable, lonely moment and M83 totally sells it, leaving us alone amid layers of watery reverb and feedback. When Gonzalez’s vocals softly lure us back into the fray, it’s okay to feel like a sucker. Sure, the awe-inspiring orchestral grandeur that follows is a little over the top, but, then again, so is existence, man.

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4. “Don’t Save Us from the Flames”

A somehow-elegant barrage of tumbling percussion, shrill synths, and haunted vocals, “Don’t Save Us from the Flames” glamorously depicts the visceral imagery of a violent car crash. What renders the track so chilling is how M83 romanticizes the carnage: “Out of the flames, a piece of brain in my hair,” Gonzalez matter-of-factly whispers, “The wheels are melting, a ghost is screaming your name,” before the chorus explodes into a spectral howl for “Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiina.” A more literal companion to “Teen Angst,” “Don’t Save Us from the Flames” embraces the courtship of memories and the obsession that accompanies tragic loss. Even though the car is destroyed, the pursuit continues into the night.


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3. “Couleurs”

A hazy, slow burn of chords and synths and bass and cowbells and more synths and thump, thump, thump, thump, “Couleurs” was the first time M83 wanted us to move instead of the Earth itself (deepest apologies to “Sitting”). Sweeping layers of melancholic synths grow into beautiful skyscrapers of sound towering over a relentless kick drum and guitar. The fact that M83 accomplishes all of this—an eight-minute trancey banger smack in the middle of Saturdays=Youth, an album inspired by John Hughes films—without the slightest hint of irony is almost as amazing as the song itself.


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2. “We Own the Sky”

M83 honors the mobilizing enthusiasm of adolescence with “We Own the Sky,” an ethereal recruitment song for enlistment into Saturdays=Youth’s quixotic propaganda. Because, at this point, why not? For all its many highlights, the album’s dogged adherence to concept often threatens descent into self-parody. Yet “We Own the Sky” is an exciting breath of fresh air that maintains the heart of Saturdays=Youth without sacrificing any of the power. Abandoning all traces of preexisting gloom for joyous revelry and purpose, “We Own the Sky” is overwhelmingly now. M83 has never sounded quite so giddy to be inspired—and that’s saying something. It’s also the moment where Gonzalez conceptually lapped himself, creating an inertia that’s guided M83’s momentum ever since.


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1. “Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun”

Years before “Outro” created the Earth, the moon, and the stars, M83 ended some other world entirely with “Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun,” the monolithic closer from Before the Dawn Heals Us. Now, presumably, one doesn’t title a song “Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun” unless one possesses the utmost faith in their artistic efficacy. However, this foray into audacity earns the reputation the song title demands. On paper, though, it just seems like textbook M83 splendor, a percussive explosion of choral opulence detonates over and over before fading away into distant, Basinski-esque disintegration. But it would be missing the point of M83 entirely to crown “Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun” as their greatest song for any other reason than, despite countless moments of transcendence over the years, it remains the first instance where the band achieved something truly mythical. For Gonzalez’s ambition to align with his grasp is nothing new, but never has it coalesced with such scope than on the 10 minutes of apocalyptic awe that is “Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun.”

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