Ever wondered what a John Hughes film would sound like if set to music twenty years after it was made?

This is it.

I was first exposed to M83 when Gary put ‘Run Into Flowers’ off their first album on a mix CD for me. It was pleasant enough to make it onto the iPod, but nothing completely mind-blowing. And up until now, I’d never had a ton of interest in owning any of their albums, especially because since that mix appearance, several other excellent M83 songs and remixes have come into my possession, courtesy of various other mixes. So I figured “Why buy the cow when I can get the (best of the) milk for free?” My friends were doing all the leg-work for me.

Now here I am, seriously considering snapping up all three M83 full-lengths, including just-released Saturdays=Youth. It’s kind of stupefying how ridiculously catchy and joy-inducing new single ‘Graveyard Girl’ is. A sublime synthesis of shoegaze distortion and new wave tunefulness, featuring an up-front, jangly guitar sound that may have been what I was missing from M83’s other work. And thematically, you can’t get much further up my alley than a song about a mopey-but-cute pseudo-goth chick vainly wishing the captain of the basketball team will notice her (Pink Candle Breakfast Club anyone?)