Graveyard Girl
Encyclopedia
"Graveyard Girl" is a song by French
electronic
/dream pop
act M83
. Written by Anthony Gonzalez with his brother Yann, it was released in April 2008 as the second single
from M83's fifth studio album, Saturdays = Youth
.
bands such as Tears for Fears
and Cocteau Twins
, as well as John Hughes teen film
s The Breakfast Club
and Sixteen Candles
, as inspirations for Saturdays = Youth
.
A girl resembling Molly Ringwald
appears on the album cover, and the lyrics and music video
for "Graveyard Girl" further highlight these influences.
"I wanted to have the feeling of a teenager mixed with this period of the Eighties
," Gonzalez said. The song tells the story of a goth
girl Gonzalez once knew who "worships Satan" but "dreams of a sister like Molly Ringwald."
's Mosi Reeves called "Graveyard Girl" one of the album's "few compelling songs."
Dave Hughes of Slant Magazine
said the song is "certainly the most typically, successfully pop moment this difficult, often transcendent act has ever produced."
Pitchfork
's Amy Phillips wrote that "Anthony Gonzalez makes the teen years seem idyllic, a time in life when all emotion is pure and beautiful," and that the song is "melodramatic, overblown, and even a little bit silly. But then again, so is high school."
Jer Fairall of PopMatters
suggested that on "Graveyard Girl", M83 found "pure pop perfection by dipping into the pool of mid-'80s synth-pop
."
Treble's Tyler Parks noted: "It is quite possible that no one has ever sung quite so sweetly of someone worshipping Satan."
by French DJ
-producer
Yuksek
serves as the single's B-side
. ParkerLab's Dusted remix appears on M83's We Own the Sky EP
, released in 2009.
"Graveyard Girl" is used in the 2010 film The Last Song
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
/dream pop
Dream pop
Dream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, when bands like The Passions, Dif Juz, Lowlife and A.R. Kane began fusing post-punk and ethereal experiments with bittersweet pop melodies into dreamy, sensual soundscapes. The term was almost...
act M83
M83 (band)
M83 is a musical act by French musician Anthony Gonzalez. It is named after a spiral galaxy, Messier 83. The band was founded in 2001 by Gonzalez and former member Nicolas Fromageau in Antibes, France...
. Written by Anthony Gonzalez with his brother Yann, it was released in April 2008 as the second single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from M83's fifth studio album, Saturdays = Youth
Saturdays = Youth
Saturdays = Youth is the fifth studio album by French electronic band M83, first released on 11 April 2008. The album was produced by Ken Thomas, known for his work with Sigur Rós, The Sugarcubes, Cocteau Twins, and Suede, with co-production by Ewan Pearson and M83 leader Anthony Gonzalez.The...
.
Background and composition
Anthony Gonzalez cited EnglishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
bands such as Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...
and Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative rock band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals...
, as well as John Hughes teen film
Teen film
Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation...
s The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American teen drama film written and directed by John Hughes. The storyline follows five teenagers as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.-Plot:The plot follows five students at...
and Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.- Plot :...
, as inspirations for Saturdays = Youth
Saturdays = Youth
Saturdays = Youth is the fifth studio album by French electronic band M83, first released on 11 April 2008. The album was produced by Ken Thomas, known for his work with Sigur Rós, The Sugarcubes, Cocteau Twins, and Suede, with co-production by Ewan Pearson and M83 leader Anthony Gonzalez.The...
.
A girl resembling Molly Ringwald
Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, singer and dancer. Having appeared in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles , The Breakfast Club , and Pretty in Pink , Ringwald has been frequently named the greatest teen star of all time...
appears on the album cover, and the lyrics and music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Graveyard Girl" further highlight these influences.
"I wanted to have the feeling of a teenager mixed with this period of the Eighties
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
," Gonzalez said. The song tells the story of a goth
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
girl Gonzalez once knew who "worships Satan" but "dreams of a sister like Molly Ringwald."
Critical reception
SpinSpin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
's Mosi Reeves called "Graveyard Girl" one of the album's "few compelling songs."
Dave Hughes of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
said the song is "certainly the most typically, successfully pop moment this difficult, often transcendent act has ever produced."
Pitchfork
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Amy Phillips wrote that "Anthony Gonzalez makes the teen years seem idyllic, a time in life when all emotion is pure and beautiful," and that the song is "melodramatic, overblown, and even a little bit silly. But then again, so is high school."
Jer Fairall of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
suggested that on "Graveyard Girl", M83 found "pure pop perfection by dipping into the pool of mid-'80s synth-pop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
."
Treble's Tyler Parks noted: "It is quite possible that no one has ever sung quite so sweetly of someone worshipping Satan."
Accolades
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock... |
US | Top 100 Tracks of 2008 | 2008 | 46 |
| PopMatters PopMatters PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,... |
US | Best 50 Singles of 2008 | 2008 | 17 |
| Rockdelux Rockdelux Rockdelux is a popular music magazine published monthly in Spain.Rockdelux was first published in November 1984, and since then has accumulated over 200 editions, celebrating its 200th in October 2002, when it released a list of the 200 greatest international albums of all time, according to the... |
Spain | Lo Mejor de 2008 | 2009 | 40 |
| Treble | US | Top 50 Songs of 2008 | 2008 | 1 |
| The Village Voice The Village Voice The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City... |
US | 2008 Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics... |
2008 | 46 |
Track listing
Other versions and appearances
A remixRemix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
by French DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
-producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Yuksek
Yuksek
Yuksek is a French electronic music producer, remixer and DJ born in 1977, native of Reims, France.After playing the piano for ten years at a conservatoire, he took part in several bands such as Klanguage, whose first album was released in 2007.He created his first tracks as Yuksek in 2006 and...
serves as the single's B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
. ParkerLab's Dusted remix appears on M83's We Own the Sky EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, released in 2009.
"Graveyard Girl" is used in the 2010 film The Last Song
The Last Song (film)
The Last Song is a 2010 American coming of age drama film developed alongside Nicholas Sparks novel by the same name. The film was directed by Julie Anne Robinson in her feature film directorial debut and co-written by Sparks and Jeff Van Wie...
.