Band Wars--M83 Versus St. Vincent

This matchup pits M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

against St. Vincent's Strange Mercy.

Tough matchup between two excellent albums.  M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming rips the fucking roof off your house, parachutes down from the sky onto your sofa, and starts eating your Doritos and watching your flatscreen.  It doesn't rock hard; it's just a fantastic album.  The band owes a debt to Brian Eno, who is just awesome, and My Bloody Valentine, whose Loveless is one of the best albums of the last 25 years.  It's just a wonderful mix of shoegaze, electronica, and ambient music, with some really catchy melodies.  I think the clip below is the album's best track.


M83, "Midnight City"

Then there's St. Vincent.  By peaking at #19 on the U.S. Billboard 200, St. Vincent has turned out to be quite a surprise in the music world.  Surprise to me, too.  I wouldn't peg this album as a mainstream hit.  The album is a solid one, striking me as a more talented, more experimental, less pop-inflected Feist.  Notable moments in the album for me are the song "Cruel" (Youtube link below) as well as the synthesizer freakout at the end of "Surgeon."  First time I heard that freakout I thought, What the hell is that?  But in a good way.  Reviewers have lauded her lyrics.  That's useful to pass on to you, even though I'm not much for lyrics.

St. Vincent, "Cruel"

But despite the quality of Strange Mercy, St. Vincent can't compete with M83.  This is the rare case of an up-and-coming artist making an excellent album and getting clubbed like a baby seal anyway.  I hope that I continue to play both of these albums regularly.

In any case, M83's Hurry Up, You're Dreaming advances.