M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

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.