Never noise could sound as melodic as on this album. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is structured really simply, although it keeps some beauty, the instrumental shoegazer pieces will emotionally hit you. The sophomore release will attract both noisy and beautiful listeners, a must have in the genre! We could almost compare M83 with My Bloody Valentine for their striking basslines that trap you on cloud nine. If I had to resume the greatness of Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, I would answer "Simply listen the tracks 'Noise', 'Cyborg' and 'Gone'", and don't be impressed if you're amazed.

DEAD CITIES, RED SEAS & LOST GHOSTS rightly put M83 on the map, and it's not difficult to hear why. Their combination of rock power, melodic melancholy and epic grandeur pack the power of an explosion. "Unrecorded," for instance, starts off with a wall of noise, but then trickles out, as if to prove that builds are not the only dynamic force in music. The beautiful "Run Into Flowers" has a powerful thrumming beginning, later echoed by some whispered lyrics. "In Church," as you would expect, has a swelling organ, that's subtly but nonetheless overcome by squalls of electric guitar. The paranoiac "America" is as dense and messy as the country itself. "Be Wild" has a quietly plantative voice in the background that's soon echoed by the melody, while "Cyborg" blends the shoegazing aesthetic to an electronic foreground. The moody strings of "Gone" slowly crescendo into a small epiphany of sound. "Beauties Can Die," however, achieves its fullness of sound immediately at the beginning and fades to a single note. On the bonus disc, "God of Thunder" pushes things into a dance tempo, while Cyann & Ben put a folksy, harmonic spin on "In Church." Finally, "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts" drifts in an ambient haze for over half of its 17 minutes before it growls into life, bursting with synth arpeggios. A truly memoriable achievement.

I normally don't listen to albums just because they get a lot of hype and comparison to bands which I like (like My Bloody Valentine), but I thought I'd give it a listen anyway. Just sounded like Pink Floyd that was purely digitized and repackaged as something new and uplifting. It kinda suits the zeitgeist quite well, and I can see why it has such an appeal to mainstream listeners, but I had to turn it off and delete it from my hard drive personally, because I couldn't stand the thought that this is the future influence of bands seminal lo-fi bands like My Bloody Valentine or Ride. A different cup of tea, but seemingly popular with a lot of acclaim. If you like the grand and epic pretensions of bands like Smashing Pumpkins then this is for you. If you prefer the quaint, dirty, and reclusive sound of My Bloody Valentine or Ride, then listen to those other bands instead.

Sort of like the second coming of "Loveless"...imagine My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive beating each other to death
with sharpened fragments of broken analog synths, granular waveforms and
old shortwave radio transmissions...a steel cage match of walls of layered
noise and enormous, sweeping grandeur. Intense, beautiful and horrifying all at the same time. Play VERY VERY LOUD.

Be prepared for full-on phasers,synths and melody.That in mind this is an awesome lp which serves as a refreshing change from the increasingly abstract trends of ambient / electronica.The track 'run into flowers' is for me the best of the lot,just superb.

I'd say that M83 is in the same vein as Ulrich Schnauss (A Stangely Isolated place more than Far Away Trains Passing). Mainly electronic music - upbeat/uplifting in feeling. I've read reviewers dropping these guys into the shoegazer category and I can't say I disagree with them. I've alos read comparisons to groups like Mogwai because of the "epic" and building way the songs develop - can't say I disagree with this either. There are also some progressive rock references, but I wouldn't consider them to be dominant. This a really good album, but hard to find where in North America (you'll probably have to order it).

My first thought of M83 was: Whew, this sounds just like My Bloody Valentine, but with a electronic edge and conception of music. Amazing and promising debut!

A great mix of Air (but less immaculate pop, and more electro), Rob and things that don't exist yet. Their songs are sometimes on and over the edge of bombastic, often stringent, filled with disturbing samples, swollen keyboards ('In Church' almost sounds like it's name implies) and frail drifting vocals.
But melody keeps the upper hand, electronically faceted, sounding half warm, half cold.