Junk

by 

M83

AlbumApr 08 / 201615 songs, 55m 45s98%
Synthpop
Popular

2011’s *Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming* was a gargantuan album to add to the canon of gargantuan M83 albums. *Junk* is rather different, but no less thrilling. Out go the blown-out anthems and in their place, nostalgically candied pop, disco and soul gems. It bobs merrily between gloriously indulgent (“Do It, Try It”, “Go!”), gloriously silly (“Moon Crystal” sounds like a ‘70s TV theme), and deeply romantic (“For the Kids”, “Atlantique Sud” and \"Sunday Night 1987”). “Solitude”, meanwhile, is gorgeous, cinematic and blessed with a spellbinding keytar solo. It’s that sort of album.

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6.8 / 10

The new M83 album almost makes you wonder: How much can you mine vintage sounds without them finally falling apart?

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As a devout cinephile, M83’s Anthony Gonzalez is certainly aware of the psychological concept of the suspension of disbelief. Essentially the part of one’s psyche that allows for buying into Crispin Glover’s George McFly coldcocking the prototypical bully Biff in Back To The Future, this phenomenon distills the…

3 / 10

7 / 10

French shoegazers take a turn for the bubblegum that doesn't entirely pay off on their seventh album, Junk

French mastermind Anthony Gonzalez attempts to resurrect unfashionable music styles on his new album

Check out our album review of Artist's Junk on Rolling Stone.com.

What ‘Junk’ lacks alongside its bonkers, anything-goes mentality is any real purpose.

The success of Saturdays = Youth and Hurry Up, We're Dreaming led M83's Anthony Gonzalez to even bigger, arguably less personal, projects like his score for the 2013 sci-fi blockbuster Oblivion, so it's no surprise that he reclaims his independence -- sometimes willfully so -- on Junk.

7 / 10

The seventh studio album from M83 might come as a great shock to fans that fell in love with their last few albums of dream-pop — and that's...

8.5 / 10

It's courageous to eschew an artistic style that brought professional notoriety and the stamp of being a trendsetter. This was the deliberate choice of Anthony Gonzalez on Junk, M83's first studio album since the widely acclaimed, electro-pop monument Hur

6.5 / 10

In the run-up to Junk, Anthony Gonzalez said that "on the last album, there was too much of me," referring to his centerpiece vocals on Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. The 2011 record broke through to the mainstream with Gonzalez fronting the majority of his M8

The meat forming Junk’s cheeseburger patty is arch deluxe.

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6.2 / 10

'Junk' by M83 review by Alice Severin. The forthcoming full-length comes out on April 8th via Mute Records. M83 plays April 8th in Dallas, Texas.

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Album Reviews: M83 - JUNK

2.8 / 5

M83 - Junk review: Midnight City Saxophone Solo: The Album

From underground to sophistopop: the French band's evolution continues. CD new music review by Joe Muggs