I found this link while cruising through the blogosphere and upon first listen I love this album. I wouldn't say I like all the songs individually, but it seems, as is characteristic of Anthony Gonzalez (M83) that the album is more of a project than a collection of songs. His project is to use his expansive sound and despite the title of his LP, make the sound less ethereal (though it is ethereal on some parts, especially at the book ends of the album) and instead create a play on pop-sensibilities, ranging from 80s new wave, to bubblegum shoegaze, to proto-house electronica. And even more so, Gonzalez has risen to involve vocals that are melodic and gracious, defining the tracks more so than his beat work (which I still give a thumbs up). In fact, I would say the songs that don't have a melodic vocal are the ones I like the least (though I must admit I am partial to vocals over instrumentation in general) mainly due to the centrality that these vocals give to his characteristically expansive sound.
More succinctly, this album is awesome. While it is experimental and finely crafted anglicized French-electronica at its best, I love it because it feels like super hero music. I've played the stream a couple times thus far, and it has functioned well as study music, but I have a nagging suspicion that it is save-the-world-because-by-listening-to-this-you-feel-awesome music.
Here's the stream, from Amazon France:
http://www.amazon.fr/gp/entity/M83/B000APTB8M?ie=UTF8&ref_=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1317985230&sr=1-1&ie=UTF8&tag=alternaive-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1642&creative=19458
and here is a link to one of my favorites "Steve McQueen" (the song title speaking for the feel of the whole album):
http://www.juzp.net/SMaaLXEF7oqvz
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