Album Review: M83 - Junk

Anthony 'M83' Gonzalez's seventh album seems holed up in a humid Californian motel: a blinking cathode ray tube channel surfing the marvellous and the monotonous into one glorious yet flawed soundtrack.

Anyone who stocked up on Kleenex for another emotion wrought cinematic journey probably felt they'd stumbled awkwardly into a fancy dress party instead of a funeral when Do It, Try It dropped; its ragtime piano beefed up by a slap-bass. It feels more like a novelty single than something Tom Cruise would hear as he heroically charges to save the future.

It's this disposable culture that Gonzalez celebrates on Junk, fire-selling his stock which is becoming predictable. An M83 instrumental called Moon Crystal sounds irresistible, right? Sure it is, if you loved the music that played over The Golden Girls end credits. Yet its inessentiality is followed by a Susanne Sundfør union on For The Kids with (another M83 staple) talking children! Rave-monk vocals return for Solitude and Beck starring on Time Wind is the kind of '80s FM synth-pop obsession Phoenix used to trade.

M83 albums are often contently exhausting experiences, but Junk is destined for short term consumption.