April 01--With his army of vintage keyboards and synthesizers, M83's Anthony Gonzalez has made a career of warm, textured nostalgia. His 2011 breakthrough, "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming," was a double album about his boyhood in the south of France. Strings and brass swept its wistful melodies to baroque heights.
In contrast, "Junk" (Mute"), M83's seventh studio album, sounds chintzy -- a bubble-gum synth-pop album that indulges Gonzalez's love of decades-old TV soundtracks, hair-metal guitar solos and kitschy pop songs.
In recent years, artists and bands ranging from Destroyer and Hot Chip to MGMT and Washed Out have reinvented similar styles of music. And Gonzalez's countrymen in Air, Cassius and Daft Punk have also successfully revived decades-old source material that once wasn't considered cool. Now it's Gonzalez's turn, and the results are decidedly mixed.
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The album's first half lives in an alternative universe where Spandau Ballet and the theme music from "Punky Brewster" rule. There are the bounce of "Do It, Try It," the "Miami Vice" tropes of "Walkway Blues" and the "Hill Street Blues" homage "Moon Crystal," the syrupy ballad "For the Kids," and the "sexy sax" and guitar-solo cliches of "Go!"
About halfway through, "Solitude" arrives as a reminder of Gonzalez's strengths -- a luminously orchestrated anthem strong enough to withstand even a keytar solo. "Laser Gun," with its dream-pop overtones juxtaposed with a rap vocal, and "Road Blaster," which pairs strutting horns with an understated vocal, merge the album's junk-pop sensibility with inventive arrangements.
But "Time Wind" wastes a cameo by Beck. His vocal sounds anonymous amid the plastic sounds -- which might be the point. M83 has rarely made music that sounds emotionally hollow, but "Junk" provides an unfortunate exception.
'Junk'
M83
2 stars (out of 4)
Greg Kot is a Tribune critic.
greg@gregkot.com
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