M83 – ‘Fantasy’
You want M83 to bring the party, right? For the last two decades, the French synth wizard also known as Anthony Gonzalez, has been crafting some of the most exciting and dancefloor-ready songs in the world of indie. A constant fixture of the summer festival circuit around the world, M83 bring the good times and big energy wherever they go. However, there’s always been something lurking just below the surface: something headier and more eclectic.
Whether you want to call it dream pop or ambient or even shoegaze, the floating and fleeting elements of M83 were always present in the band’s music. It’s just that if you only listened to hits like ‘Midnight City’ or ‘Reunion’, you probably wouldn’t know it. If that’s the kind of style you’re looking for when you plug into M83 then prepare to be disappointed in Fantasy: across 13 densely-packed and occasionally lengthy tracks, Gonzalez pulls as far away from pop music as he’s ever gone.
Instead, M83 jump into futuristic synth-pop and experimental dream-drones. The shapes of the album’s arrangements can occasionally come off as formless and even break down entirely in parts. It’s all part of the journey that Gonzalez shepherds the listener through. Finally able to escape the confining spaces of nightclubs and cityscapes, Gonzalez instead turns to skies, open spaces, and mental vacations as his primary sets and settings.
As if to subvert expectations right from the word go, Gonzalez barely features any synths on the opening instrumental track, ‘Water Deep’. Instead, acoustic guitar becomes the main focal point of the song, slowly plucking out notes that serve as a gentle introduction to the album’s second track (and first single), ‘Oceans Niagara’. Frontloading the album’s two singles together helps clear the path for Gonzalez’s more wild excursions later on in the album, with ‘Amnesia’ picking up on the same buzzy drive that ‘Oceans Niagara’ explored.
Once those are out of the way, it’s time for Gonzalez to get weird. A major trend on the rest of the album is that songs are allowed to sprawl. ‘Usand the Rest’ is an unhurried track featuring chants and a languid arrangement that eventually explodes into something cosmic and cathartic. Furthering the dream-like feel of the album is ‘Earth to Sea’, an ethereal dance track that sounds like a discotheque somehow made it to both outer space and the bottom of the ocean.
‘Radar, Far, Gone’ once again brings back the acoustic guitar for a folk walkabout. At this point, Fantasy embodies its name by getting as far away from tactile party beats as possible. Even when the hard-hitting rhythms return in songs like ‘Fantasy’ and ‘Sunny Boy’, the soundscapes of ‘Deceiver’ and ‘Kool Nuit’ prove to be the album’s real sonic fingerprint.
As the album’s second interlude, ‘Sunny Boy Part 2’, slowly fades into the background, a classic synth line ushers us into the album’s final track, ‘Dismemberment Burreau’. Bringing the momentum of the album to a slow ballad-like conclusion, Gonzalez remains as ephemeral as ever, with words and music blending into each other without one overpowering the other. Some vocoder-treated vocals take over, but the lyrics never stop being inscrutable. It’s a barrier that prevents most of M83’s work from truly transforming into something bigger, but it also adds a strangely timeless element to the music: who listens to words that much anyway?
With a more relaxed and open headspace than on previous albums, M83 fires on all cylinders on Fantasy. While it might not have quite the same punch that past releases and live shows generally contain, Fantasy is a welcome progression from an artist who is always trying to find a new angle on his signature sound. As light as a pillow but deep as an ocean, Fantasy is a fully engrossing experience that never tips into sensory overload.
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