Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Background and recording

Prior to recording Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, Anthony Gonzalez had moved from his native France to Los Angeles. Describing the move in an interview, Gonzalez said: "Having spent 29 years of my life in France, I moved to California a year and a half before the making of this album and I was excited and inspired by so many different things: by the landscape, by the way of life, by live shows, by movies, by the road trips I took alone... I was feeling alive again and this is, I feel, something that you can hear on the album" Gonzalez's tour with The Killers, Depeche Mode and Kings of Leon, in addition to his road trips to Joshua Tree National Park also heavily influenced the album. Gonzalez cited the ambitiousness of albums such as Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as the reason he made Hurry Up, We're Dreaming a double album. In addition, he described the two discs as brother and sister, with each track having a sibling on the other disc. The album was recorded in Los Angeles at Sunset Studio and The Sound Factory. Because of budget constraints and union issues, the string and brass players who contributed to the album were not paid and were credited with pseudonyms.

Gonzalez recorded the album as a way to remember his childhood. Gonzalez explained to Spin magazine that Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is "mainly about dreams, how every one is different, how you dream differently when you're a kid, a teenager, or an adult. I'm really proud of it. If you're doing a very long album, all the songs need to be different and I think I've done that with this one." In an interview with musicOMH, he described the album as "a reflection of my 30 years as a human being" and something he dedicated to himself.

Style

Gonzalez described the album's sound as a mix between the synthpop of Saturdays = Youth and the more ambient work of Before the Dawn Heals Us. Additionally, the album uses instruments not found on previous M83 albums, such as acoustic guitar, flute and saxophone. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming also features contributions from Medicine's Brad Laner and Zola Jesus. Critics have noted musical influences from '80s artists such as Kraftwerk, Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel and Harold Faltermeyer, as well as modern electronic artists such as Cut Copy.

Release

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was first teased on 23 June 2011 in a YouTube video titled "Echoes...", which also announced North American tour dates. The album's lead single, "Midnight City", premiered online on 19 July 2011, and was officially released on 16 August 2011. On 10 October 2011, the album was streamed in its entirety on the Urban Outfitters website. Urban Outfitters also hosted a simultaneous listening party at all of its stores the Saturday before Hurry Up, We're Dreaming's release. On 17 October 2011, a music video for "Midnight City" was released. On 30 May 2012 a music video for the album's second single, "Reunion", was released. The "Reunion" music video is a follow-up to the "Midnight City" music video. On 25 October 2012 a music video for "Steve McQueen" was released. The track "Outro" was used as the backing music for the extended trailer created for the film Cloud Atlas as well as many other trailers and films over the following years. On 5 November 2012 a three-disc deluxe edition featuring remixes of "Midnight City", "Reunion" and "Steve McQueen" was announced. On 5 December 2012 a music video for "Wait" was released.

Critical reception

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 38 reviews. Pitchfork Media's Ian Cohen gave Hurry Up, We're Dreaming a "Best New Music" designation and dubbed it the band's best record thus far, noting the reduction of the "heavily saturated synths" of Anthony Gonzalez' earlier work in favor of more accessible songs and adding that "the traditionally structured songs here are some of the most thrilling pop music released this year." Similarly, The Daily Telegraph's James Lachno felt that the album "finally fuses his innate ingenuity with an accessible, commercial edge." Rudy Klapper of Sputnikmusic complimented the influence of 1980s music on Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, calling the record "near flawless, an essential distillation of the sounds of Gonzalez's youth, nostalgia and melancholy and happiness all mixed up into a sparkling pop stew." The Independent critic Simon Price praised it as "a towering city of sparkling synth edifices simultaneously summoning the best of the 1980s (New Order, The Cure) and the current breed (The Knife, Empire of the Sun)".

Under the Radar's Laura Studarus described Hurry Up, We're Dreaming as a "remarkable accomplishment" and a "double album of stunningly ambitious, synth-soaked dreams". In a review for the NME, Jamie Crossan compared the album's "guileless and dreamy" nature to the title character of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 1943 novella The Little Prince and admitted that such would be "quite a bold statement to make, but this is an album of equal valour." Reef Younis of BBC Music felt that while "some consistency may have been sacrificed in favour of a space-filling selection of tracks, this set still represents a heaving, breathing journey through the introspective and the bombastic, the striving and the exhaustive. It is the undeniable sound of one man's triumphant dreams." Heather Phares of AllMusic stated that while Hurry Up, We're Dreaming "may not be quite as striking as Saturdays = Youth, it delivers a welcome mix of classic sounds and promising changes."

David Marchese of Spin felt that Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is "full of goose-bump moments", but that the "lack of something as enjoyably plain (and relatively calm) as 'Kim & Jessie'... makes Gonzalez's insistence on oversize emotions feel a tad restrictive." In a similarly mixed assessment, Timothy Gabriele of PopMatters criticized the band for "focusing too much on magnitude throughout and too little on depth" on the album, but noted that the "totality of sound" on the album "has a way of blinding even the most critical listener to the problems that underline many of the album's lesser songs". The A.V. Club's Christian Williams found the album underwhelming, concluding that "for an album of such impressive scale and nanoscopic attention to detail, Dreams [sic] leaves a surprisingly light impression." Kevin Liedel of Slant Magazine criticised the album for rehashing sounds from earlier M83 albums and felt that it sounded "much more like an M83 wannabe's poor imitation than the real deal."

Accolades

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming has appeared on several end-of-year lists. Filter name it the best album of 2011. Paste named Hurry Up, We're Dreaming the 9th best album of 2011, writing "As with everything the Frenchman's done so far, the album is lush and ably produced, crescendo after crescendo." Pitchfork Media named it the third best album of 2011, with Jayson Greene writing: "Hurry Up We're Dreaming doesn't just draw liberally from the spirit of the massive rock albums Gonzalez name-checked, it practically swallows them whole, regurgitating and redistributing them into something listeners from every corner of the music universe can hear a piece of their lives in." Popmatters ranked Hurry Up, We're Dreaming #5 on its list of the top 75 albums of 2011, while Spin ranked the album #19 on its end-of-year list. Online music retailer eMusic ranked the album #2 on its Best Albums of 2011 list.

The track "Midnight City" has been singled out for praise. Paste named it the second best song of the year. PopMatters named the track the best song of 2011, with Ryan Reed writing: "On this transcendent standout [...] Anthony Gonzalez and co-synth-scientist Justin Meldal-Johnsen build layer upon layer of keys, arena-sized drums, and vocal atmospherics (not mentioning one of the tastiest sax solos this side of a Springsteen record). The result? The synth Sistine Chapel."

Tour

Prior to the tour, Gonzalez posted an open audition on the M83 website for a multi-instrumentalist who could play guitar, bass and keyboards to join him on tour. Sparta Township, New Jersey native Jordan Lawlor won the audition.

The tour for Hurry Up, We're Dreaming began in Mexico City on 15 October 2011 and ended on 1 December 2011 in London, England. A second leg of the tour began on 12 January 2012 in Los Angeles and was originally going to end on 8 August 2012 in New York, New York. During this second leg, M83 performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 13 and 20 April, at the St Jerome's Laneway Festival in Australia and New Zealand, and at Lollapalooza in Chicago, Illinois. The tour was later extended and ended in London on 8 November.

Track listing

All songs composed by Anthony Gonzalez, except "Splendor" written by Anthony Gonzalez and Brad Laner. Additional music composition by Justin Meldal-Johnsen. Additional lyrics by Yann Gonzalez, Morgan Kibby and Brad Laner.

1. "Midnight City" (Eric Prydz Private remix)
2. "Midnight City" (Trentemøller remix)
3. "Midnight City" (Team Ghost remix)
4. "Reunion" (Mylo remix)
5. "Reunion" (Sei A remix)
6. "Reunion" (White Sea remix)
7. "Steve McQueen" (Maps remix)
8. "Steve McQueen" (BeatauCue remix)

Personnel

The following people contributed to Hurry Up, We're Dreaming: