I didn’t see this coming at all. On first encounter this was totally unexpected.

For some reason I had previously assumed M83 was some lo-fi, punky angst band from France and had always thought their acclaimed album “Dead Cities, Red Seas…” was some sort of Green Day/angry band revamp. How wrong could I have been. (OK, I got one thing right however, they are French!)

This album, another one from my batch of recently acquired $2 rejects, is a lush, cinematic soundtrack, complete with sound bites and dialogue, from a film that doesn’t exist.

An album destined to remain unfamiliar, not because it is inaccessible, but because of its scale, scope and daring. Chromatics and Bark Psychosis immediately spring to mind.

• Allmusic.com - Review