M83 Saturdays=Youth
Out of context: Reply #28
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- mg330
From his site, here's everything i was trying to say about the 80s movie references:
But fans expecting more of the same would be disappointed – Gonzalez already knew what he wanted to do with Saturdays=Youth: "I wanted to make the record sound really Eighties."
He succeeded, of course. If the doomy synthetic romance of his earlier work hinted at a fetish for Eighties goth staples such as Sisters of Mercy and the Cure, this album's chiming astro-pop finds Gonzalez taking a stroll on the sunnier side of the decade. Serene numbers such as "Kim and Jessie", "Graveyard Girl" and "Up!" are haunted by Kate Bush and the Cocteau Twins. The dulcet female voice on the album belongs to Morgan Kibby, singer in an LA band called the Romanovs. Gonzalez was introduced to Kibby by his film-director friend Eva Husson, for whose forthcoming feature, Tiny Dancer, he has composed the soundtrack. "I went to Morgan's MySpace page and I got a crush on her voice – it's very soft and clear. So I asked her to sing on my record," he says. "You can hear that she has Eighties influences as well – this record is all about Eighties influences."
He's serious, too. The red-haired Molly Ringwald lookalike on the sleeve? That's intentional. Gonzalez says his main influences for the album are English bands like Tears For Fears and Cocteau Twins, as well as classic John Hughes teen movies such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. "On this record I wanted to have the feeling of a teenager mixed with this period of the Eighties," he says. "I also wanted 11 different-sounding songs on the record – none of the songs sound the same."