M83‘s last album, 2008’s Saturdays = Youth, reveled in ’80s teen filmic associations (speaking of John Hughes). This week, the French electro dream-pop band headed by Anthony Gonzalez, who now calls L.A. home, released the follow-up to that critical favorite. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. expands M83’s embrace of widescreen reverie, most obviously because it’s a double-album.

“Midnight City,” the first single, is absolutely breathtaking, one of those all too rare songs that are worth closing your eyes for and getting completely lost in. I particularly love the lyric, “The city is my church,” and the transcendent sax solo that closes the track leaves no doubt that M83’s heart is forever shaped by ’80s nostalgia.

The music video for “Midnight City” is transcendent in a very different, more literal way. Directed by Fleur & Manu, the clip focuses on set of very special kids who possess telekinetic powers (with a Rubik’s Cube as an obvious ’80s signifier). There’s no real resolution to their tale, more of a beginning and middle without an end, so perhaps “Midnight City” is just the first chapter of a larger story to come.

In an Stereogum interview posted yesterday, Gonzalez describes his desire for a return to an appreciation of the album that’s been largely lost in the digital age:

“I’m not excited to release a double album on iTunes. It just doesn’t make sense. Honestly, for this album, I’m going to push people to buy the CD or the vinyl, but I know it’s hard nowadays. I’m old school, you know? I’m really nostalgic about the time when you would go to the record store, and you had been waiting for a record for such a long time. You just go to the stores and dig into it and you go to your apartment and listen to it. I miss that time. This is a way for me to say to people, “Well, this is an old school album, not a modern album.” I’m not saying that the modern way is bad. It’s different.”

Spoken like a man after my own heart.

Purchase M83 – “Midnight City” via iTunes. (Ironic, doncha think?)