Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts - M83
Metascore
86 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
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  1. All Music Guide
    90
    M83 is a keyboard band of the best kind: one with nuance, tone, thrash, and color.
  2. Pitchfork
    92
    Simply put, this album sounds absolutely huge, its relentless attention to detail eclipsed only by the stunning emotional power it conveys.
  3. The A.V. Club
    50
    As monumental as Dead Cities sounds in parts, its uniformity proves oppressively stirring after just a few tracks.
  4. Under The Radar
    80
    A Herculean instrumental epic of beautiful depth, staggering grandiosity and extraterrestrial soundscapes. [#7]
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  5. Drowned In Sound
    90
    A wonderful surprise.
  6. Filter
    92
    There's an organic component that coexists along with the machines, giving them a warmth few acts have been able to unearth. [#11, p.93]
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  7. Stylus Magazine
    90
    Although at times M83 evoke Jean-Michel Jarre or Air, this is far from being an album of Franco-synth by numbers; it is the layered, hypertextual futurism of My Bloody Valentine and Brian Eno which seeps through the electronic Gallic gauze as the most palpable influences.
  8. No Ripcord
    90
    In Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, M83 have created an ethereal electronic masterpiece, and one which, thankfully, doesn't sound like a relic from the Warp Records back catalogue.
  9. Austin Chronicle
    89
    The whole much greater than its parts, Dead Cities is creation imbued and then muted again.
  10. Delusions of Adequacy
    100
    This is a really special record.
  11. Magnet
    80
    That [M83] achieve My Bloody Valentine beauty through antiquated analog rigs is an achievement in itself. [#64, p.100]
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  12. Urb
    90
    Immersive and woozy, brittle yet supple, a twittering, throttling piper of spectral drones. [Jul/Aug 2004, p.126]
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  13. Playlouder
    90
    Few artists can master the trick of capturing ambience and atmosphere without resorting to cliche. M83 are among the few.
  14. ShakingThrough.net
    60
    Dead Cities reinforces the French pair's penchant for distorted vocals and cheesy synthesizers, but the tracks here ultimately add up to far less than the sum of their assorted parts.
  15. Almost Cool
    80
    While I don't think that it's quite the groundbreaking release that many have given it credit for, there are definitely moments during the 12-track release that I feel like the group has cracked into something unique and downright amazing.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.5 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 35 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 20
  3. Negative: 3 out of 20
  1. ribena_wrath
    9
    This album as a whole is spectacular. It's hard to think how electro can be so poignant, so powerful. A bunch of keyboards stirs up so much feeling here. The album is clearly divided into two. Some tracks are slow, progressive and grandiose. The others pretend to be, and then rip your face of with frantic noise. But all the tracks are visceral and colourful.

    Personal highlights, America, Gone, Run into Flowers, Unrecorded.    … Full Review »
  2. RickyR.
    10
    Electronic music was never meant to be this beautiful. Some parts of the album sound so huge it's almost frightening in it's vastness. Listen to this album in a comfortable chair with the lights off and your mind will swim with beautiful images.… Full Review »
  3. turtlehead
    3
    every few months i will put this on again, attempting to figure out what exactly is so appealing about it. I can't believe every person who gave this a 9 or 10 would have were it not for the huge critical reception. I find it almost impossible to make it from one end of the album to the other. Despite it being synthesized organ tones, it somehow manages to be more abrasive -- probably a result of its one (1) dynamic -- than any punk or metal or noise I've heard. Nobody I know ever actually listens to this. M83 did a song called "slowly" that i love, a good party song, but this album just wallows. I just wanted to say, to anyone considering buying this, to listen to some of it first, because its not really relaxing, interesting, fun...it's huge synth organs with synth blips and bleeps. you've been warned. DO NOT believe the hype surrounding this album. if you want epic, get some godspeed, if transcendant, maybe johann johannsen or the soundtrack to 2001 or something. The rating of their follow-up album reflects how well the debut keeps, i think. Cut the gimmick loose.… Full Review »
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