An interesting situation: a creative, original sound, but no good songs or arrangements to go with it. M83's second album follows the shoegaze pattern of My Bloody Valentine and Ride, except with the guitars entirely replaced by electronics programmed to sound
like guitars--so what we've got here is faux-guitar noise with obscure little electronic plinks and keyboard tones in the background designed to give the music space. The thing is loud, overpowering, and boring. There is no talent shown here in arrangements at
all--every track follows the same formula: begin with a pretty enough keyboard melody and layer on noise until it becomes ear-shatteringly loud. And that's it. There is not a moment that deviates from this. One track of this is fine enough to listen to, but everything becomes nearly unlistenable when repeated twelve times. What might have made this work is if the tracks were longer and the progression-of-loudness more intricate (this is how most post-rock groups like Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor! work) but nope, most of the songs are between three and four minutes. M83 would would produce one more bad album (
Before the Dawn Heals Us) before perfecting their sound, but this album is really of no interest except to completists. Download one track; that's all you need.
MY RATING:
2.7
M83 - "Noise"
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