Before the Dawn Heals Us

M83



One of the best releases of the year and definitely M83's greatest work thus far is Before the Dawn Heals Us. The opening track Moon Child is sort of a backwards swirled candied concoction reminiscing about a child's past. In the Cold I'm Standing captures the infinite isolation of just that. It is the bitterness of the arctic and the loneliness of death, it's perfect. Farewell Goodbye is both happy and melancholic. It features delicate male and female choruses, a love song for flowers. Fields, Shorelines and Hunters could be describe as the end of some iconoclastic period in one's life. Teen Angst seems to capture the sound of someone's dream, that airy tunnel-like sound. It sounds like a beautiful whirling-dervish at a seaside carnival, stopping and starting again with the waves. Can't Stop is somewhat of a comical song, sounding like a majestic self-help mantra. Safe is a sad dramatic piece with male vocals. It leads into the fantastic sound of fireworks which opens the soothing Let Men Burn Stars. Slight Night Shiver is filled with the passing and zooming of cars, an ominous heat-filled song. A Guitar and a Heart is a heavy drum and guitar epic. The final track is the massively beautiful Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun. It builds slowly into a great chorus of wonderment and doesn't seem to want to end. You cannot go wrong with this recording, it's a pot of gold. (Just keep it away from Leprechauns)