Track Listing

1. Moonchild
2. Don't save us from the flames
3. In the cold I'm standing
4. Farewell / Goodbye
5. Fields, shorelines and hunters
6. *
7. I guess I'm floating
8. Teen angst
9. Can't stop
10. Safe
11. Let men burn stars
12. Car chase terror!
13. Slight night shiver
14. A guitar and a heart
15. Lower your eyelids to die with the sun

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23949 in Music
• Released on: 2005-01-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Most druggy music chooses clearly between ecstasy and horror; Anthony Gonzalez deliberately blurs the emotional borders. The French musician, now a one-man-band following the departure of partner Nicolas Fromageau, communicates an awareness that even as the darkest trips have a sick thrill to them, the most pleasurable parts of a lysergic voyage have a creepy aftertaste. On the opener, "Moon Child," you can hear both creepiness and pleasure, as a lucid yet happily stoned female voice reveals that "The whole universe will glow," contrasting ominously with the sort of swelling background choirs Pink Floyd amassed when it was time for their big production numbers. And excitement and fear meld on "Don't Save Us From the Flames"; surreal snippets of lyrics ("Out of the flames/ A piece of brain in my hair/ The wheels are melting/ A ghost is screaming your name") are followed by the name "Tina" in a moan all-but indistinguishable from the airy synthesizers. Gonzalez is less adept at constructing structurally-complex compositions than at tunefully arranging sound effects--repetitive keyboard licks that could've been swiped from a '70s PBS documentary soundtrack and bone-scraping blasts of My Bloody Valentine guitar are among his favorite tricks. But his methods are justified by his sense of brevity, and careful alternating between two speeds--soft epic space-trance and vintage shoe-gazer rave-up--adds to the hallucinatory feel. --Keith Harris

Customer Reviews

Painfully beautiful: Best of 2005... best in a long time!
Take the best of Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor, pour all your soul into it, and you have nothing less but M83's painfully beautiful masterpiece, "Before the Dawn Heals Us". Founding M83 member Anthony Gonzalez starts a solo track with this album, showing us what the human spirit is capable of conceiving. He can make you cry tears of joy or sadness equally, with a production that is going to stand the test of time.

There is no song better than the others in this production. The whole album stands firm as a rock, ready to be listened to millions of times, to be interpreted and reinterpreted without fear. Simply put, "Before the Dawn Heals Us" is by far one of the best albums in a long time, and becomes the first one in my Best of 2005 list.

Don't ever save us from this...
I came in to work one morning to prepare for the first year social anthropology course I was teaching at University of Copenhagen, but just sat down on my chair and started crying for no apparent reason.

Whichever reasons could hide behind such an outburst, I guess it must also have had something to do with Scandinavian November coming down on me in all its mighty darkness. But it most certainly had the most to do with "Safe" from M83's "before the Dawn Heals Us".

I was just overwhelmed, I guess. Overwhelmed by the intriguing distortion of beauty on this album of synth-scapes and guitar-walls. Overwhelmed by the ride into an album of intense changes in noise and melody, but forever shot through with beauty.

Having expressed my almost physical addiction to "Safe" I must admit that I actually find the My Bloody Valentine-ish songs more to my liking (i.e.: "Don't Save us from the Flames", "Fields Shorelines and Hunters", and the scary "Car Chase Terror") ... but this album does these things to me. Turning itself into this monster that both screams and whispers, laughs and cries, flows and ebbs when it carries me along with it.

This is beautiful music. Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

Extremely Beautiful And Captivating
M83 adds one simple instrument to the mix on their new album and the entire experience is tranformed. The addition of voice makes Before The Dawn Heals Us seem both more personal and more distant than their previous albums. On Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, you felt as if you were transported to some alien place; perhaps in space, perhaps another planet or universe entirely. On Before The Dawn Heals Us, you are left on the planet Earth. But it is not an Earth we know. It is an apocalyptic world of flames, fear and loss but at the same time a world of hope.

M83 is still an entirely electronic band, but on Before The Dawn Heals Us their synthesizers sound different. Rather than existing solely as electronic sounds, as they did in previous albums, synthesizers here frequently serve to emulate some real world instrument; be it guitar, piano or drum kit. These two differences from previous albums make Before The Dawn Heals Us M83's most accessable and beautiful album yet. You easily become immersed in the album's haunting wails, pounding beats and driving riffs. A few songs have a rather uplifting feel to them (Let Men Burn Stars, Can't Stop), but most have a depressing sense of urgency to them, compelling you to listen further but retaining their sadness. Especially chilling is Car Chase Terror!, which weaves in a truly frightening dialogue between a mother and child with heart racing synths. Overall, this album is completely amazing. It may help you fall asleep, it may make your heart pound or it may make you just want to lie in your backyard, staring up at the stars, but whatever the case, you will definitely enjoy listening to it. Though it's much to early to judge, Before The Dawn Heals Us definitely goes on my Best of 2005 list.