On M83’s new album, Saturdays=Youth, Anthony Gonzalez expertly balances overwrought cheesiness with unabashed sincerity, a striking contrast to his prior records. M83’s debut, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts was a largely instrumental album featuring blinding layers of apocalyptic synth and experimental knob twiddling that yearned to be taken deadly seriously. 2005’s Before the Dawn Heals Us then surprised M83’s followers by offering up over-the-top ’80 anthems interspersed with stark ambience and spoken-word dramatics. Each album was gloriously unique, but Anthony Gonzalez and his varied band of cohorts had yet to make an album that could be widely embraced until now.

Watch the music video for "Graveyard Girl" from Saturdays=Youth 

Saturdays = Youth shows Gonzalez ridding himself of the impulsiveness that defined M83’s infancy. Gone is the sporadic divisiveness of Dawn or the more-is-always-better approach of Dead Cities. In its place is a smoother and more consistently enjoyable ride. The synths are still blinding, but joyously so. The songs still vary between anthemic and meditative, but never veer into the distracting overindulgence found on prior albums. How did Gonzalez pull off this welcome transformation? By psychologically transporting his muse back to his carefree teenage years.

In the liner notes, Gonzalez thanks "all the friends, music, movies, joints, and crazy teachers that made my teenage years so great!” Gonzalez’s placement of pop culture items on the same pedestal as real live BFFs and role models may seem initially jarring, but the truth – at least for those of us presently struggling through our mid-20s – is that these pop culture connections really do matter. We lived and breathed Honey I Shrunk the Kids for years alongside our friends in parents’ basements and quietly obsessed over Ace of Base alone on rainy days. The music on Youth takes the listener on a journey centered on Gonzalez’s equally chintzy loves – his worn VHS collection, his “Yamaha = God” iTunes playlist – and the people he shared those passions with.

Standout tracks like “Kim & Jessie” are confidently triumphant anthems with deeply personal lyricism, expertly framing the adolescent moments in which we groped in the darkness for our identity and shared constantly with our friends because we trusted them with our entire hearts (“Kim and Jessie/They have a secret world in the twilight/Kids outside worlds/They are crazy about romance and illusion”). Youth captures the teenage spirit of any era: it does what it wants and thinks boldly – reaching for heights that may not exist in reality but never failing to put a smile on your face in the process.

COMING UP: M83 perform on Wednesday, May 28th, at the Triple Rock Social Club with openers The Berg Sans Nipple , and locals Ghost in the Water (previously featured on Reveille). 9 p.m. $12 adv/$14 door. 21+.