It wasn't until we started listening to M83—the solo efforts of Anthony Gonzalez—in the early '00s that we started to get what others were talking about with their Francophile obsessions. From Antibes, France, M83 lead the way into shoe-gaze for us, much in the same way The Smiths made twee-pop come alive, or how Braid think about Fugazi in a way that made them genius beyond the name.

There are so many ways to talk about music, but with M83 we can't separate the feeling, or the imagery, from the music. It is massively, wildly deep, emotional, and sweeping from the second the needle hits the record. At least it is for us. They are our favorite band, until the next time that we forget that they are our favorite band...But then we'll hear "Kim & Jessie" again, and remember all over again how crushingly in love we are with them all over. M83 is a late-fall romance, in the falling leaves, in the woods behind our Midwestern homes. M83 is the dream we had of falling in love, with winters bite around the corner, wrapped warm in wool and corduroy, with the low sun setting behind us through the trees.

Whichever daydreams that they may incite, M83 recently released this new video for "We Own the Sky", the single from Saturdays=Youth, out on Mute.