Life during the teenage years is a whirlwind of angst, melodrama, and simplicity. At the age of 15 or 16, every moment begins to take on a weightiness that feels profound and unique. From love lost to parties partied, the life of a teenager can be the ultimate inspiration for telling a story. Twenty-some years ago, a director by the name of John Hughes began making films that captured the essence of what it felt like to be a kid. His movies portrayed the awkwardness of adolescence with such painstaking precision and endearing humor that members of any generation can relate to the characters.
It is no surprise to anyone with a television or an American Apparel nearby that the 80s have made a comeback of sorts. Perhaps we weren’t expecting one quite so soon, considering that era isn’t all that far behind us. Alas, the sights, sounds, and neon-colored styling of the 80s have returned with a vengeance and are tugging at our inner child to pay attention.
For one young man from France, the movies of that generation never left his soul. Instead, they consumed his creativity and inspired him to make music that veered away from every other synth-inspired pop band out there. For M83’s Anthony Gonzalez, the 80s were the perfect backdrop - the most powerful influence - for helping him revive his feelings of youthful innocence. For Gonzalez, adolescence was the time where he discovered the things that made him happy; his new album Saturdays = Youth is a stunning melodic collection of pop songs that speak to those trouble-free times.
Though his previous work has supplied listeners with intense volume and gorgeous, somewhat melancholy ambience, Gonzalez’ experimentation with up-beat rhythms and danceable tunes were just what the new album needed to convey that sense of nostalgia. “I wanted to recreate the feeling of my teenage years, even if it’s impossible. And I think a pop song is the best artificial recipe to flirt again with your very youth,” says Gonzalez. “Listening to a good pop song or watching a great teen movie is an intense experience for me, because it brings me back to a certain kind of innocence, of virginity. I remember when I watched The Breakfast Club for the first time when I was 12 or 13; it was like a new world opening its gates. Rebellion, kisses, little pop dances - for me, this film and a few others are like an emerging love. It’s fresh, absorbing, magical, and we don’t know yet it’ll never be the same again.”
It is in that moment of realization that life will never again be as it was - that we celebrate the songs and movies of our past. The thing that sets Gonzalez’ music apart is his awe-inspiring ability to maintain the spirit of M83’s vision while paying tribute to a decade that transformed his soul...and ours.
“The aim with this album was to bring together two producers with very different personalities, says Gonzalez. While Ewan Person is young and totally anchored in today’s electronic music, Ken Thomas has a lot of experience in production, as he worked with many famous bands in the 80s. So the combination of these two perspectives seemed interesting to me. Ken was very easy to work with as he has great listening capacities towards the artist...leaves them a lot of freedom, which was very enjoyable as it gave me the opportunity to have my say all the way through the making of the album.”
And it is Gonzalez’ vision that helped to create an album with 11 very separate and distinct songs connected only by their sense of whimsy. Each song on Saturdays = Youth brings instantaneous reminisces. Every note echoes a familiarity and paints a vignette of recognizable characters and situations. Gonzalez stays true to the authentic 80s sound by using only electric instruments and analog synthesizers. And, of course, having Morgan Kibby (from LA-based band The Romanovs) singing on the album didn’t hurt either. Kibby’s penetrating voice flattered each distinctly diverse song. Her tone is reminiscent of a familiar female singer from the era - namely Kate Bush.
“Graveyard Girl” and “Couleurs” sound almost exactly like certain scenes from Pretty in Pink felt. The beats and harmonies are infectious and danceable in the most endearing ways. It is mesmerizing to hear how each song mirrors the way it felt to watch those quintessential 80s films. They gave Gonzalez the fuel he needed to create music that challenges the listener’s imagination. “Like Dead Cities and Before the Dawn, Saturdays = Youth is very much connected to cinema, but in a peculiar way. Actually it’s more like a connection of songs for a personal teen movie that will never be made,” says Gonzalez. “It’s different from Before the Dawn, which was like a movie in itself, with a beginning, a few cathartic moments and a kind of logical ending. Saturdays is like a bouquet -- it could be different moments from different movies sharing the same spirit. But it’s true that I’ve always been close to cinema. I usually have images in mind when I compose. Lately, I wrote a soundtrack for Eva Husson’s first feature film Tiny Dancer. It’s a different process when you compose directly for some images -- they’re not a fantasy anymore, they’re real and concrete, and you’ve got to deal with it, being more precise than ever.”
Proving that he can make 80s inspired pop music just as beautifully as he can make ambient shoe-gazing goodness, Anthony Gonzalez has brought M83 to a whole new level of music. He is making a place for himself inside a pocket of your heart and Saturdays = Youth will end up being one of those albums, twenty years from now, that’s pulled out to indulge some old memories.
-- Brigitte B. Zabak [April 19, 2008]
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M83's Saturdays=Youth is available now on Mute Records.
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