- Audio CD (22 Sep 2003)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Labels
- ASIN: B0000AISL4
- Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 81,937 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Birds |
| 2. Unrecorded |
| 3. Run Into Flowers |
| 4. In Church |
| 5. America |
| 6. On A White Lake, Near A Green Mountain |
| 7. Noise |
| 8. Be Wild |
| 9. Cyborg |
| 10. 0078h |
| 11. Gone |
| 12. Beauties Can Die |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts is the second album from French electronica duo M83 (Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau) who, thankfully, derive their name from a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Hydra and not from an interminably lacklustre stretch of noxious British motorway. The name certainly nods to where their wide-eyed spaced-out technicolour imaginations are fixed, but they also know how to sound ponderously intense--hence the cold, cello-aided sonority of "Gone", possibly the only track on the album that defies the lambent warmth of the purring analogue synths and beguiling reveries that make the rest of the album as enticingly therapeutic as a thermal spa.
Humane post-rock is clearly M83's strongest attribute because both "Run into Flowers" and "On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain" are curiously pretty cameos, far removed from the automatic anaemia of other workmanlike button-pushers. The high point, though, is the symphonic sweetness and motherly female choral vocals of "Beauties Can Die", which is rather like being cradled in the arms of an angel, or at the very least the arms of Sigur Ros and Lesley Garrett. If one really has to die and go to heaven, one rather hopes the journey up there will sound like this. --Kevin Maidment
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Some say this album is inspired by shoegazer bands. I say "yes" to that statement, but it is only modeled after the effect the wash of synth/guitar noise has on the human mind. "Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts" is intense, dark, warm and soothing all at once. This is the first album of 2003 that envelops me upon first listen. For fans of: Sigur Ros, My Bloody Valentine, The Postal Service, Boards of Canada, Manitoba "Up in Flames", Jesus & Mary Chain, Air.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I discovered M83 entirely by accident browsing on th web one day, but boy what an accident.
Taking it's cue from dreampop and expanding upon it with influences as far reaching as ambient electronica, eighties funk and Samuel Barber/ Gustav Mahler-esque symphonic string arrangements, M83 transcend the comparisons they attract ("My Bloody Valentine meets Air" yawn) and create a rich tapestry of yearning beauty, epic melancholy and sweeping catharsism that is all their own.
This is one of the most beautiful records I have ever heard and, being a sound engineer and owning about 500 albums, for me that is really saying something.
I doubt it will be to everyone's tastes but to me it is definitely the record of 2003.
Taking it's cue from dreampop and expanding upon it with influences as far reaching as ambient electronica, eighties funk and Samuel Barber/ Gustav Mahler-esque symphonic string arrangements, M83 transcend the comparisons they attract ("My Bloody Valentine meets Air" yawn) and create a rich tapestry of yearning beauty, epic melancholy and sweeping catharsism that is all their own.
This is one of the most beautiful records I have ever heard and, being a sound engineer and owning about 500 albums, for me that is really saying something.
I doubt it will be to everyone's tastes but to me it is definitely the record of 2003.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I revisited this album last night after I'd bought it and confined it to my rack for over a year, and realise that I'd been listening to it all wrong. Previoualy I'd had it on it the background or in my car and you really can't do it just ice that way - this is an album that has to be concentrated on. I whacked up my Hi-fi do a decent volume, turned all the lights off and lay on the floor for a while listening and it was amazing. After 6 tracks I thought angels were coming down to earth and caressing me with invisible hands...well something like that anyway. Don't make the mistake I made and slot it on your Ipod as you walk to Tesco, but really try and listento it and you'll be rewarded
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
epicness
I have to say the same as a previous reviewer. this album is not to be used as background music. it requires you to sit down with the intent to do nothing but listen. Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2007 by thomas Griffiths
amazing! truly.
i have no idea how to review an album or even critically write about a group but this band (or bloke) fills my head with sound! Read more
Published on 31 May 2006 by buzz
poooeeeeeyyyy
bought this album based on the 5star reviews it's been getting. i have over 800 cd's in my collection to date. this is one i will be selling. it's like one long noise. Read more
Published on 23 April 2005 by "thefrenchmann"
This is original
I am going to disagree intensely with the previous reviewer, anyone who considers this "noise that doesn't go anywhere" would be best prescribed an ear test, or a better hi-fi. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2005 by David Ellis
Not very happy
I ordered this record on the basis of several reviews, of which all compared M83 favourably to Air. Having listened to the album, I have to fudamentally disagree with that... Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2004 by Ed
Four and a half stars.
French duo M83 (Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau) make sonic crescendos out of analogue synths to evoke the kind of electronic post-rock in the vein of Mogwai, spliced with... Read more
Published on 21 April 2004
Different but not great
There has been a lot of hype about this album with it getting almost perfect scores from some reviewers.
I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2003 by Splossy
Evolution
My Bloody Valentine, The Cranes, The Orb, Eno. Its all here, and pretty darn good
Published on 28 Sep 2003
Electronic lushness
This album is excellent and I have only had achance to listen to it a few times.Thier sound is lush by constantly building layer upon layer of effected synth sounds and guitars... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2003 by I. Foxwell
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