This one is for shoegaze. Or Bar Mitzvahs. Either way, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is the fifth installment from the Anthony Gonzalez-centered pop act, and it’s got everything you’d expect from this Frenchmen (besides a flag of surrender).
While straying a bit from the sound of the past four critically acclaimed (…mostly) albums, this has got the same airy, reverb-till-death vocals over loud, blended instrumentation that has got them (or kinda him, there’s a constant rotation of members who lend their hand to Monsieur Gonzalez) to where he is today. A lot of the songs on the album (see: “Midnight City”) have ’80s victory montage written all over them. Think of the scene right before the credits where the main character jumps into the air and the picture becomes a freeze frame as the movie fades out, or blonde dude in aviators drives into the sunset in a fire-engine-red Corvette, on seemingly out-of-nowhere but endless highways. But one track, “Reunion,” is more…Bar Mitzvah montage.
And like awkward facial hair at the time of my Bar Mitzvah, this grew on me. For those like me who are not usually ones to listen to Shoegaze, this has some real appeal across genres. Towards the end of the song I’m pretty sure a woman’s voice hits on the listener. And it’s got so much reverb on the vocals that I can understand about one-fifth of the words, but that seems to actually complement the rest of the track perfectly, almost as if words would break the barrier of cliché that this song almost tip-toes on. My Bar Mitzvah crossed way over that line. If my mom was cooler, she would’ve chosen this instead. Stupid Five for Fighting song.