NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

After listening to the 2011 M83 record Hurry Up We're Dreaming several times the last few days, I started to think about how each of the songs on the record seem to illustrate scary images in a way that makes the listener feel in control of those scary things. Take for example today's song, " Midnight City. " The central image of the song is a car the speaker is waiting for in the middle of the night. The feeling of a dream can make this mysterious car a positive thing. But we all know that a dream can change in an instant, and that car could belong to a serial killer. Fortunately, M83 keeps the entire album on the positive side of mysterious. So, I wanted to curate a playlist about dreams, mostly positive and mysterious dreams. Enjoy!

Earlier this year, I talked about Carly Rae Jepsen 's E-MO-TION   as an album I could listen to without skipping a track, which is quite a feat for a 12-track regular edition, 15-track deluxe edition. However, when I first started listening to the album, I couldn't stand one track. A lot of listeners really, really, really couldn't stand the lead single, " I Really Like You " but I found the track enduring and quite in-line with the singer's debut single, " Call Me Maybe ." Tracks in the middle of Jepsen's third record changed things up with maximalist '80s nostalgia: funky bass-lines, larger-than-life drums, and synths to fill in the atmosphere surrounding Jepsen's crisp vocals. SO TIRED OF HEARIN' ALL YOUR BOY PROBLEMS . Enlisting a slew of Swedish songwriters and producers; listening to Robyn , Cyndi Lauper , Prince , and Kylie Minogue for inspiration; and collaborating with the HAIM sisters, Sia , her band, and long-term collabo

" Midnight City " is perhaps the only song that most listeners know of French musician Anthony Gonzalez 's project, M83. Originally a duo with Nicolas Fromageau , producing shoegazer electronica, Gonzalez took over the group and Fromageau went on to form the band Team Ghost after M83 's sophomore record, Dead Cities, Red Cities & Lost Ghosts . M83's best known record is Hurry Up, We're Dreaming for it's roots in '80s nostalgia, hitting 2011 right when older and middle-aged millennials were missing their childhoods. Over the course of Gonzalez's tenure, M83 albums hit and miss. Hurry Up was definitely a hit. I also hope to devote some time this year to Saturdays= Youth , which is arguably the act's best record. But today's song comes from an album made with the synth from Thriller and the drum machine from "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." WAITING IN THE CAR. Los Angelos is the " Midnight City " Gonzalez is referring to