M83: Saturdays=Youth

Before they blew up with "Midnight City," Anthony Gonzalez and co. gave us a masterpiece.

M83 were on a roll in the aughts. In less than a decade, they released five albums that blended shoegaze, dreampop, and ambient with a plethora of synthesizers. And while the results were mixed at times, M83 were on to something. They were aiming for something bigger with each album. Bigger in sound. Bigger in ambition. Bigger in popularity. And they did just that.

By the time they arrived at Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming., they were a well-oiled machine whose goal of writing their own Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (the primary inspiration for the album) had come to fruition. Whether it was their intention, Hurry Up… does in fact feel like the sonic equivalent of a night’s worth of dreams: colossal hits, gentle lullabies, interludes that come and go before you know it. The album’s conclusion feels like those early mornings you feel consciousness tugging at you in a dream you wish would never end.

But three years earlier, they released Saturdays=Youth, the most focused album of their career.

Saturdays=Youth may have a melancholy undertone, but it’s by no means a depressing listen. To me, it evokes more feelings of hope than sadness. It’s the perfect soundtrack to standing in the middle of a grassy field on a sunny day, surrounded by rolling hills with no one else in sight. It’s an album meant to be enjoyed in solitude.

“Kim & Jessie,” “Graveyard Girl,” and “We Own the Sky” are early standouts with their pop sensibility. But, more importantly, they steer clear of the “bubblegum pop” label — these songs never lose their flavor and only get better with age. It’s songs like these that keep you coming back, only to learn the rest of the album is just as prodigious.

M83 were no strangers to instrumentals, but they really honed in on this kind of songwriting on Saturdays=Youth. The album’s opener, “You Appearing,” sets the stage with its piano-driven introduction and subtle buildup of synthesizers. Then there are tracks like “Couleurs” and “Highway of Endless Dreams.” Similar to the aforementioned opener, they commence with a single instrument and intensify as the songs progress into something even more euphoric than how they began. It’s as if you translated the blossoming of a flower into music.

This album requires patience — I cannot stress that enough. It didn’t attach itself to any trends in late-2000s indie pop which has allowed it to age gracefully. And, more importantly, it’s an album that regardless of how many times you’ve listened, you’ll always discover something new.

As nauseating as this phrase has become over the years, I’m going to use it anyway. Saturdays=Youth is more about the journey than the destination — it’s about enjoying the moment. And the more present you are, the more magical the experience will be.