M83 - “Teen Angst”

Placebo - “Teenage Angst”

Zack: It’s hard to argue that there’s anybody who has a better grasp of teen angst than Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes. But Brian Molko of Placebo comes close. Growing up as a theater-obsessed, androgynous (and eventually bisexual) child in a family that rarely spent more than two years in a single location, I guarantee the only thing Molko dreaded more than having to interact with his dad, an international banker, was going to school. In an FHM interview, Molko claimed to have been forced to leave his school in Luxembourg due to excessive bullying, and given his nature and appearance, is it hard to doubt? And what does M83’s Anthony Gonzalez have to say about his life as an adolescent? “I loved being a teenager. That’s when I discovered music and started to take drugs and make parties [sic] with my friends. I really started to discover new things. Nowadays I would like to be a teenager again.” Wow. Someone get this poor guy a rag so he can wipe off all the angst.

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It would be a lie to say that listening to M83’s Saturdays=Youth is vaguely reminiscent of being transported back to the ’80s. Listening to M83’s Saturdays=Youth is incredibly reminiscent of being transported back to the ’80s. This is meant to be taken precisely as what you’re likely thinking: there were some fun things about music in the ’80s, but there were also some awful things about music in the ’80s.

The opening track is what would be expected for an M83 album — mellow piano melody with string-like synths fading in and out of the background, getting increasingly louder until highly altered female and male vocals enter, an all-together stunning example of modern electro-dream pop done right.

But then “Kim & Jessie” starts and it’s ’80s reminiscing time. It’s all there, most notably the hollow synths and flat drum machine. At first it’s forgivable, though, because it’s like the good bands from the ’80s. Like Duran Duran. Well. Duran Duran’s first album. Anyway. Then, like too many songs from the ’80s, it becomes a little too repetitive and goes on a little too long. But it’s not bad. Just… overkill.

M83, “Kim & Jessie” (download) (more…)