Combo: Moby & M83
Last week saw new releases from an artist I’ve been crazy about from day one – M83 – and a release from an artist that lost me somewhere along the way – Moby. Since they both released vaguely conceptual records, I thought I’d combine my thoughts on both efforts in one tidy package. And hey, they both start with M. That’s reason enough, right?
After releasing the same album over and over again, I’d lost a lot of faith in Moby. After all, what were 18 and Hotel if not near-carbon copies of his breakthrough album, Play? At the very least, they were all spins on the same formula, and after 9 years it was all getting a bit old.
However, a few months ago I was given a glimmer of hope. That’s when Mute unveiled the first single off this album, called ‘Alice’. It was the perfect fusion of old & new, incorporating Moby’s blues-y vocals with some tight vocals/rapping courtesy of MCs Aynzil and Nigeria’s 419 Squad. It had that ubiquitous Moby guitar, but it didn’t feel like a tired retread. Instead, I thought for the first time in a long time that Moby might actually be back on track.
And after listening to Last Night, I’m convinced I was right. The general theme behind the album is an all-nighter out on the town, and more specifically Moby’s own experiences clubbing in NYC back in the 80’s. So it appropriately begins with the 97 BPM slowburn of ‘Ooh Yeah’ – a true homage to the Donna Summer heyday of disco, with a Chic-ish guitar & heavenly Abba-esque vocals. Next up is ‘I Like To Move in Here’, which is far more recognizable as a Moby track, and includes a solid (though hardly standout) rap from Grandmaster Caz. ‘Everyday it’s 1989′ is pretty self-explanatory – the halcyon days of rave thoroughly and respectfully encapsulated in a single song. And again, it plays less like theft or repetition than a sort of love letter to days gone by.
There’s the aforementioned ‘Alice’, followed by what might be considered the sexiest song Moby has ever made – ‘Hyenas’. It features vocals by French singer Nabila Benladghem – who often sounds a bit like like Marianne Faithfull here – as well as Moby taking a page from Serge Gainsbourg, delivering gruff & muffled lyrics in the background. Another track that rises above is ‘Disco Lies’, which manages to evoke early house as well as Taylor Dayne (hey, for all I know maybe that IS Taylor Dayne).
The album’s last 3 tracks bring the evening to a close, evoking those hazy hours between 4am & sunrise. ‘Mothers of the Night’ could easily have fit on the last half of Play, while ‘Degenerates’ is on the whole rather unremarkable. The album’s closer – the self-titled ‘Last Night’ – is a perfect cap on Moby’s late night. It features a surprisingly smooth & sultry delivery by Kudu’s Sylvia Gordon surrounded by Moby’s ethereal synths, and functions as a lullaby that gently eases you to sleep.
Overall, ‘Last Night’ delivers on Moby’s promise of an 8 hour night compressed into 60 minutes. There are a few clunkers here, but they are far outweighed by the moments that work so well (‘Ooh Yeah’, ‘Hyenas’, ‘Alice’). Pick it up, it’s worth the effort.
Anthony Gonzalez also had a theme in mind when he approached his 4th album as M83. And like Moby, it was to peer backward into his younger years. Of course, one difference between Anthony and Moby is Anthony is only 26 to Moby’s 42, so for him it’s less a flashback to actually living as a teenager in the 80’s than it is a look back at his teenage years watching John Hughes flicks about the 80’s.
That Hughes influence is apparent right off the bat in tracks like ‘Kim & Jessie’ and ‘Graveyard Girl’ – the prior calling to mind the grander side of Tears for Fears; The latter a mixture of the Psychedelic Furs & New Order. And much like Last Night, these seem like genuine and heartfelt stylistic tributes instead of tiresome, paint-by-numbers covers that so many modern bands looking to the 80’s for inspiration seem guilty of.
Elsewhere, Gonzalez reaches even further into the 80’s back catalogue. ‘Skin of the Night’ feels like a long-lost Kate Bush track, while ‘Highway of Endless Dreams’ is Ride all the way. There are also nods to The Cocteau Twins, Ultravox & Simple Minds. Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Cocteau Twins, Sugarcubes, Suede) co-produced the album alongside Ewan Pearson (The Rapture, Ladytron, Tracey Thorn).
And fans of M83’s previous sonic excursions need not worry; S=Y isn’t just an 80’s flashback. ‘Couleurs’ is an epic and expansive number reminiscent of their earlier work – it clocks in at around 9 minutes, though you’d never notice as you’re so totally immersed in the M83 world within the first few moments that time starts to become more and more difficult to gauge. Still, it’s obvious that this is a different M83 than we’re used to. This effort – as a whole – is more focused and devoted to structure than any other M83 album so far.
Lyrically, lines like “She worships Satan like a father/But dreams of a sister like Molly Ringwald” (from ‘Graveyard Girl’) can come across as forced and awkward, but then your mind drifts back to your teenage years, and you remember that 15 year-old Goth girl you were lab partners with in Biology. You recall she really did talk that way, and slowly remember that at as a teenager, even you were frequently awkward & clumsy when it came to expressing yourself. Suddenly the lines feels more authentic and less like parody.
So in the end, Saturdays=Youth will seem vaguely familiar, but it’s simultaneously so uniquely filtered through the sounds of M83 that at best it might feel like watching an old home movie that you don’t remember being in. At the very least, it will remind you how much Saturday used to mean to you.
