Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.
As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.
Album: Before The Dawn Heals Us (2006)
Artist: M83
Link:
Anthony Gonzalez, YOU are built different.
I mean, seriously. You part ways with your long-time contributor and friend, decide to keep at it solo, and pivot into one of the more stunning career arcs I can remember. Every single M83 project has been unreal, but this shines among the best of a stacked cast.
Before the Dawn is an odyssey - as most great works tend to be - but so particularly brilliant in its confidence. This is an album that pulls from shoegaze, from dream pop, from the minimalist touches and the loudest screams, doing so without ever lingering too long in any one moment. Gonzalez tends to run long-winded, and he’s certainly unafraid of that here. It does lead to moments in the doldrums, but you have to travel a lot of dead space to get to a new planet as an astronaut - it’s not that different.
This is an ever-changing glory of a work - something that never rests upon the framework it’s built from, instead shifting and creating, morphing into something glorious, massive, and almost new.
Rating: 9/10
Best Tracks: Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun
Worst Tracks: Can’t Stop