Wait from the French masters of electronic music M83 is the final link in the trilogy about children with psychic superpowers. The single is the fifth track in the double LP Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. The eclectic project is done as a soundtrack for an imaginary movie. The spectacular Wait video, recorded on December 5, 2012, brought together in one saga the stories of “Midnight City” and “Reunion” created the year before. The main idea of the band M83 was to show how different are the dreams of a person at different stages of life: in childhood, adolescence, and maturity.
The compositional feature of Wait
In terms of genre and composition the songs on Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming are structured in such a way as to reflect the main idea of M83’s electronic music ideologists: as people get older their aspirations and life plans change. Child, teenager and adult formulate their goals and objectives in different ways, realize their desires in different ways, dream in their own way.
The dynamics of the dream over time, the transformation of its form and content is conveyed through the music tracks, each of which involves a particular set of instruments. The compositions differ in atmosphere, melody and rhythmic pattern. “Wait” is written in the “shoegaze” genre, with its inherent ethereal vocals and guitar effects.
The textual content of the singles of the epic and rather bleak album is varied. Wait as the conclusion to the trilogy “Hurry, We Dream” expresses the essence of the entire project: one must learn to properly dispose of the present. After all, human life is fleeting and full of surprises. Each of us runs the risk of not having time to do something most important and important in the allotted time.
The meaning and interpretation of Wait
The author of the lyrical composition Wait, the frontman of the band M83, Anthony Gonzalez, encourages the listener to accept the fact that life does not stand still. The song can be interpreted as a conversation about the transience of earthly existence, because man is like a microdust particle in space. We cannot slow down or speed up the passage of time. We cannot change what has already happened or prolong the happy moments of the present. We should not put things off or hope for a more favorable time to come. We must learn to properly, wisely manage the day.
The text “Waiting” calls you to live here and now! It is important to follow the admonition of the well-known proverb: “A time for business and an hour for pleasure. Do not get bogged down in trivialities, focus on the essentials. Set the right priorities, purposefully put your plans into practice, try to turn the dream into reality. This is figuratively stated in the lyrical lines of the song, “Give your tears to the tide”; “Send your dreams where no one is hiding.”
The refrain “no time” says that life can’t wait for us. This means that he who, in accordance with the words of P.A. Vyazemsky, quoted by A.S. Pushkin in his novel “Eugene Onegin,” is right, “…both to live in a hurry and to feel in a hurry.”
Creative Destiny of Wait
The deep philosophical message of the authors of “Wait” ensured the song an active creative decade. Today, the heartfelt “no time” can be heard not only in the band’s sixth album M83. Wait exists in other formats as well.
The song was first used by other artists right after it was recorded. Turner Classic Movies television channel took the M83 composition as an introspective soundtrack for the program TCM Remembers. It commemorated all the artists who passed away during 2012.
The track Wait is used in several television projects: in the series of 2012 “The Secret Circle” (episode 9) and “Gossip Girl” (episode 5, episode 14), in the sci-fi drama series “Under the Dome” based on the Stephen King novel of the same name (episode 7, season 1). The song is heard in the fifth episode of the sixth season of “The Vampire Diaries,” and Nrtflix’s “Ragnarok” opens the first episode of the opening season.
Because of the relevance of “Wait’s” theme, the single has been approached by feature film makers: the dance film “Step Up, Revolution” (2012), the thriller “Perfect Sisters” (2013), and the melodrama “Five Feet Apart” (2019).
The chorus from Wait “no time” impressed director Josh Boone so much that he picked up the track in The Fault in Our Stars. The title in Russian distribution is The Fault in Our Stars (2014). The story’s characters, cancer patients Hazel and Augustus, don’t have a chance to grow old. Boone shows the sense with which teenagers in love live out their allotted time.
For the 2018 San Francisco Unbound Ballet Festival, M83’s electronic ballet “Hurry, We Dream” was commissioned. Justin Peck’s production of the same name is a choreographic sketch about how people’s dreams change at different stages of life: children, teenagers, adults. Authentic and youthfully fresh, “Waiting” is one of 12 one-act ballets in a groundbreaking project in which classical dancers perform on stage in sneakers.
The synthesized sound, the guitar shuffles, and the atmospheric vocals make Wait a truly ethereal music. Sometimes it is used for the design of space-themed projects. A prime example is the documentary TV series “Chasing the Moon” (2019) by director Robert Stone. A free remix of the song was recorded in 2014 by a music producer from Norway. Wait (Remix Kygo) is aired alongside the original “Wait.”
