The ShortListen: M83 (no. 264)

Who? M83

What’s the story? We just don't know what to believe in any more. First Jake Bugg goes breakbeat, and now Anthony Gonzalez, aka M83, unveils the first single from his long-awaited new album, and it's an utterly bizarre song. It sounds a lot like a kids' TV show theme and darts about all over the place with jazzy house piano chords jumping everywhere. And the audio video features a singing dog. 

We'll be honest, initially we were so blindsided that it took a few listens before we could make any sense of it. Pleasingly, repeated listens allow you to tease out some elements - the chorus hints at the epicness of old, while the last 50 seconds call to mind the glorious ending of Giorgio by Moroder on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. The album is going to be called Junk and features songs called Bibi the Dog, For The Kids, The Wizard, Laser Gun and Moon Crystal, so you can see where he's going with this one - we suspect a few illicit substances may have been involved in its creation.

A statement released by Gonzalez reads: "Anything we create today is going to end up being space junk at one point anyway, and I find it really fascinating and scary at the same time – beautiful too in a way. I have this image of pieces of humanity floating in space, lost forever. It also means that nowadays everything goes so fast and everybody is kind of throwing away art in a certain manner. People will listen to an album for instance and just pick a track they like to put on a playlist. They’re not going to take the time to listen to an album anymore because they have to jump on the next thing."

For fans of: Daft Punk, Pet Shop Boys

In three words: Crazy comeback track