With another successful North American tour wrapped up over the weekend in support of his latest album Fantasy, today M83, aka Anthony Gonzalez, has made available fan favorite deep-cut “Mirror,” from his beloved 2011 album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Upon the original release of Hurry Up, “Mirror” was a hidden track found only as a secret download in the packaging of the CD, and later released as a record store day 7″. Fast forward to the current day, and “Mirror” has proven an exuberant closer to the electric, cathartic live sets on the Fantasy tour throughout the year.
Speaking about the release of the track to Billboard earlier this month, Gonzalez said: “it’s a track that never came out digitally and we close our shows with that song. The response of the audience has been great so far, and it’s an unknown song that deserves to be properly released in my opinion.”
For Gonzalez, Fantasy‘s direction and aesthetic was immediately clear. “I wanted this record to be very impactful live,” he says. “The idea was to come back with something closer to the energy of ‘Before The Dawn Heals Us’. The combination of guitars and synths is always in my music, but it’s maybe more present on this new record than on the previous ones.”
Reserved in nature, Gonzalez also sought to continue a trend that has become more prominent in his recent albums. “I wanted to be more present lyrically and vocally even if that was daunting at first,” he states. “I thought if I could achieve that, this album will be more personal than those that came before.”
Fantasy, M83’s 9th studio album, proves a towering sensory delight and marks his most personal album to date, an alternate world that Gonzalez has created as an escape from the disconnected world we live in today.
