“Forever” feels like the right word when describing most of the songs on M83’s newest record, Forever, where ambient, drawn-out tracks meet the new wave percussion and synths that has kept the French electronic group at the forefront of dream pop for the last quarter-century.
More than anything, Forever sounds like an escape into infinity, a synth-filled soundtrack to be played around a spaceship flying at lightspeed into the unknown, flitting past stars and galaxies on its way to an unknown, final destination.
In the hour-long record, released March 17, Anthony Gonzalez uses his full skillset — piano, synthesizers, drums, guitars, to name a few — to deliver the rollercoaster of an album, which has no issue resting in low, ambient tracks like “Sunny Boy Part 2” before revving up into power chords and up-tempo instrumentals.
Sometimes we see this broad range within a song, such as title track “Forever,” on which low echoing vocals quickly transform into hard-hitting synths and a beat that feels like a throwback to disco before a handful of instruments come and make the song a pure club dance track.
On other, more vocal-heavy tracks like “Amnesia”, listeners get a glimpse into the magical otherworldliness that Gonzalez attempts to capture: “Floating for a miracle / likе pixies / guide me to thе last realm / this crimson love / it’s a miracle.”
Coming off a four year hiatus since M83’s last album, Digital Shades Vol. II, it’s clear that Gonzalez made this album with the intent to express the feeling of — or maybe the urge for — “forever”, and for the most part, he succeeds.
Gonzalez invites listeners on his adventure, and we’re inclined to follow along, though there are some quiet moments that feel slightly too drawn-out or directionless, such as the second half of “Radar, Far, Gone.”
But despite some quiet, spacey moments, the spaceship analogy feels right, and listeners are met with few surprises. More than anything, Gonzalez set out to capture a piece of infinity, and he did just that, such as on the lead single, “Oceans Niagara”, in which Gonzalez repeats two words three times in four minutes: “beyond adventure”.
And by the end of the album, after the adventure, you get the feeling that Gonzalez doesn’t know what forever means to us, but you get to see what it means to him.
— Carlos Fuentes
The Stumptown Groove 