Second track “All I Know” begins with a Motion City Soundtrack feel, thanks to the synth work. The drum work throughout the EP is always good, but this song is particularly noticeable. With the smooth transitions and dance-y beats, “All I Know” is the catchiest song of the set.  ”New York, New York” is the pop-punk song of the album. This song has the poppy value of an All Time Low song, with the chorus sounding similar to “Coffee Shop Soundtrack,” an ATL oldie.

The lyrical content, while simple and having been done before (but honestly, what hasn’t?), is relatable on the surface and on a deeper level, presenting the listener with two options: listen to the song and enjoy it for the simplicity of the upbeat chipper sound, or enjoy the song for the lyrics that are at times a little down – or, if you are a philosopher, there is that third option of both. Sad lyrics with pop music tends to allow that dismal feeling one would achieve from listening to a band like Coldplay to be avoided.

With vocals comparable to those in Summer Obsession (see the title track, “Finders Keepers”), and catchiness like that of +44, Fourth Quarter Comeback is the Alternative power-pop band to listen to.

But, since first impressions are almost always wrong, I kept listening. Not that hearing something upbeat like BTR would be a bad thing, anyway. And Aaron Carter? Come on, you know you were a fan at some point. With The Ready Set’s past albums, specifically I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming, there seems to be more of an alternative pop feel; a sound that perhaps was not completely accepted on popular radio stations, or the (for lack of better terminology) “mainstream” (I know, I know – it’s a soiled word) music scene. In the Feel Good Now EP, however, slight changes are made that make it more commercial.

Third track “Back to Back” is a perfect example. This song just sounds like it belongs on the radio- catchy chorus, key changes and hand claps. But while this EP is more radio-friendly, it is still TRS-signature. For example: the lyrics. Like I said before, cutesy lyrics are what Jordan Witzigreuter is all about, and this stays constant throughout everything in this new release. The keyboard usage is also still remains a dominance of the songs.

The Feel Good Now EP is Jesse McCartney with a smaller ego, Aaron Carter with a less flashy lifestyle/reality television flop, and Big Time Rush without dance moves or a falsely-advertised extravagant lifestyle. But most importantly, it is still the same ole Ready Set you’re used to hearing.

In “Raconte-moi une Histoire,” the sixth track from the record, a young boy tells a wonderfully descriptive story about a magical frog. According to the story, the frog, if found and touched, will change your world forever, turn blue into red, your mommy into your daddy, make everything look like a giant cupcake, and make you keep laughing and laughing. This particular story may be describing some sort of frog, but it could easily be describing the album title. The main sentiment found throughout M83’s two-disc magnum opus is that feeling of youth, and the memories that come with being a child. In short, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is a celebration of youth and childhood.

From the very start it becomes clear that this album is huge. I’m not just talking about its length, but its sound, and its grandiose way of doing things. The introduction to the record carefully builds up as Zola Jesus chimes in to provide a hair-raising performance, all before exploding into a tremendous explosion of sounds. Loud enough to fill a stadium, first single “Midnight City” contains a gigantic chorus, which is perfectly mixed with some softspoken verses. The track’s versatility and its prediction of sounds to come make it an ideal single, and the perfect way to start the record.

The first part of the album continues to impress with gigantic choruses and soothing interludes. Tracks like “Reunion” show how much more prominent the percussion is as opposed to previous albums. Gonzalez’s ability to carefully build up a song before it climaxes into a cacophony of sounds is portrayed in “Where the Boats Go.” It should also be noted that this record is highly accessible, with certain tracks, such as “Claudia Lewis,” being bouncy, fun and catchy from the very first listen.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this album is that Gonzalez is able to keep a similar feeling throughout the album, but still keep his listeners entertained. By simply adding a couple of touches and tweaks to every song, they each become their own entity. Examples: the choir in “New Map,” the nostalgic ’80s feel of “Ok Pal,” and the pummeling drums of “Year One, One UFO.”

The album closes on a lighter note, with a couple of bouncy tracks that are quite easy to digest. It seems like after the whole ordeal, M83 gives you a bit of a rest. Before ending, however, we get an outro, which closes things in the magnificent manner that Gonzalez intended.

Anyone who has heard any of the work previously done by M83 knows that it is upbeat and big. However, with Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, the band has gone above and beyond, making an album that’s more upbeat and bigger than any of their previous work. Hell, this is more upbeat and bigger than most albums this year. With winter right around the corner, we have the choice to sulk around in the cold, or we can take the initiative to make it warmer than the previous one. Celebrating your youth seems like a good way to do this, and no other album this year celebrates your youth like Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

MindEqualsBlown: Your new album, The Listening, is your full length debut, and it’s been pretty well received. How does it feel to finally have released it?

LIGHTS: Awesome, for starters! It feels like it’s been a while in the works. It’s kind of a collection of the best stuff I came up with over the past few years, and it’s all really honest and heartfelt, and I’m actually really proud of it. Everything from the music, to the artwork surrounding it, to the comic that’s spawned from it, to the videos and everything, it’s just something that I’m so proud of, so actually seeing it out there and doing a tour on it, it feels almost effortless because it’s something that I’m so stoked on. It’s really, really cool. I feel legitimate! (laughs)

MEB: According to your MySpace page, you said that you don’t want to make people feel “sexy” happy, but “apple pie” happy. What influenced you to have that sort of style, rather than something like Britney Spears or Lada GaGa?

L: Well it’s just more of who I am, you know? I’ve always been kind of a hermit, I guess. Growing up I was a homeschooled kid so I just had a lot of fun making music in my room and drawing comics and being kind of a geek. That sort of semi-covered up, dancy kind of stuff – it’s not bad – it’s just not my thing, it’s not who I am. So it just came natural that I would be a representation of who I am as a person; it’s like that undeniable, heartwarming happy that you get when you have awesome apple pie. It’s the best feeling ever, and when I first started making this music, I’d not only write to bring myself out of dark places or change my mood around, but I also created sounds and really lush and ambient intergalactic environments around the songs that make me feel happy. There certainly are different kinds of happy, and this is a certain kind!

MEB: I noticed that a lot of your music videos are very artsy and galactic looking, did you come up with those concepts?

L: Yes, definitely. It all started with the “Drive My Soul” video. I would close my eyes and listen to “Drive My Soul” and all I could picture in my head was me creating and designing a spaceship in order to get to this purple planet with this astronaut waiting for me. There was just no other way to have it! Everything I write – audio – there’s always some visual component that goes with it, and that was the one that went with this, and I just needed to find someone to bring it to life, and that’s how it’s happened ever since. I have all these ideas and crazy concepts and it’s just a matter of finding other people to work with that will make it that much more of a reality.

MEB: You’re on tour right now, so how’s that going?

L: It’s awesome. I’m actually back in Toronto for a couple of days to work on some stuff for the Canadian tour which comes up in November, but then we actually go back out tomorrow to kick the tour back off. We took a break in the middle which is kind of weird, but we are back out tomorrow in Buffalo and I’m really excited, it’s been amazing. We’ve done about a week and a half of shows and it’s the first tour I have done in the States on a record, actually the first tour I’ve done on a record. It’s really cool seeing people come out and actually knowing all the songs as opposed to just knowing a few, because previously I’ve played new songs, but they weren’t really out there for people to know, so now people can actually sing along to the new stuff and it’s awesome.

MEB: You just announced a new city with Owl City next year. Are you excited for that?

L: It’s going to be awesome! It was kind of a long time coming. Owl City is awesome and reminds me of myself in many ways, so it seemed only fitting. We are going to play a lot of places I’ve never actually played in America, like in Alabama and stuff, so it’s gonna be fun!

MEB: You were on Warped Tour this year. Was it your first time on Warped?

L: I mean I used to go to Warped Tour all the time, as a listener. Last year we actually did the tour in Cleveland, just one-off, to get a little taste of it, but this is the first full on Warped Tour I’ve ever done, well we did a month of it, so it was interesting. It was actually a total blast, it was a party all the time. You get to see great music all the time and meet new people every day and win over multitudes daily, which is a challenge, but it was absolutely fun and I learned a lot.

MEB: Do you have any specific memorable Warped experiences that happened?

L: For starters, the weather. You get such extremities. You get days that its pouring rain – I remember one day in Montreal, it was just pouring rain, and Adam, my other keyboarder on stage, the water was pouring in his keyboards and his keyboards fizzled out mid-set, and half the stuff wasn’t working on stage and people were just drenched, but it was awesome. Listening to crazy, lush music and being soaking wet – there’s something that much more melodramatic about it. There was also Florida, where it was so incredibly hot, and I got off stage in Orlando, and pretty much threw up, it was so hot. But still, it was absolutely a blast.

MEB: You have been pretty much all over the US and Canada touring. What’s your favorite city so far and why?

L: There’s a few, for different reasons. It’s always cool coming back to Toronto because you know that you have a foundation there and there’s people that are going to come because I have been working out of Toronto for longer than anywhere. But there’s those hidden places that you wouldn’t think would be awesome, but they are. Like Texas – the music lovers down there are crazy. There’s tons of people that know my songs that I never would have even guessed knew them down there. And I always have a good time in Seattle or Portland, I love the West Coast. Same with Vancouver. Also, weirdly, in Denver, I love playing there. Also Boston (laughs).

MEB: Do you have any guilty pleasure bands?

L: I definitely would have to say I’m a huge t.A.T.u. fan, remember those two girls from Russia? I love t.A.T.u. and I’m not really ashamed of that either. I am an open t.A.T.u. fan (laughs). Other than that I mean there’s all the usual boy bands that are actually really easy to listen to because the songs are great. Also, one of my big pleasures is Cradle of Filth, they’re an awesome band. I don’t think it’s a guilty pleasure but it’s kind of unexpected I guess.

MEB: What about if you could pick three bands, living or dead, that you could play a show with?

L: One of them would be ABBA, for sure. That would be a nuts show! I would love to collaborate with Supertramp. I don’t know how many of them are still around or not, but I love Supertramp, they’ve influenced my writing for so long. And I think it’d be stellar to collab with Justin.

MEB: I know you play World of Warcraft, tell us a little about your character.

L: Well I have a couple level 80s. The one I have been playing a lot lately is my Draenei, definitely. I’m having so much fun honestly. I’ve been doing a lot of raiding actually. She likes raiding with friends and she enjoys nice walks on the shores of Stranglethorn Veil at sunset. She goes for achievements a lot, I’m always working on the achievements. Right now I’m about to get the title for Hallow’s End. I’m not huge on PvP, but if I’m in a battleground or something, I’ll definitely make it happen. I’m mostly going for the experience.

MEB: How do you find time to do all that, with touring and stuff?

L: It’s definitely hard when you’re on the road. But when you’re backstage for example, and there’s internet in the venue, and the opening band’s on and you are just sitting back there thinking about going on stage, you get a little butterflies, no matter how many times you’ve done it. It’s nice to get your head out of the world and go into World of Warcraft for like an hour and run Trial of the Crusaders or something.

MEB: Do you ever play with fans?

L: I do, actually. I actually posted my character and server on my MySpace, which I have since taken down and transferred over to the server I am in now, which people are starting to find out about as well. Whenever I am in game or just doing dailies or something and I’m not too busy, people will whisper me and we will have full on conversations which is awesome. I’ve actually gotten together with people in-game for screenshots.

MEB: That’s all the questions I have, is there anything else you would like to add?

L: Well, on my website, iamlights.com, you can actually check out a semi-animated cartoon that I’ve released. It’s basically a comic book with music in the background and I am doing voiceovers, and they are two minute episodes. It’s called Audio Quest: A Captain LIGHTS Adventure, and they are playing on MTV in the States in the morning, and then weekly on MTV it goes on their website.

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Grant Harris of Breathe Electric over the phone. Below is a transcript of our conversation.

MindEqualsBlown: Just to give you a background on MindEqualsBlown, we are an up and coming music website. We do album reviews and interviews. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

Grant Harris: Yeah, of course man.

MEB: So you’re on tour right now?

GH: That’s correct.

MEB: And how is that going?

GH: The shows have been going really good so far, we’re having a lot of fun and really getting to know the other bands and having fun with them.

MEB: Any upcoming tour plans?

GH: Yeah, we have tour plans for October into November, which are not posted yet. Then we meet up with the Brokencyde tour in Seattle for the entire west coast.

MEB: Is your new EP available in stores, or just online?

GH: It’s in like 25 or 30 different Hot Topics regionally around the Midwest, and it’s on iTunes and Smartpunk.

MEB: So your EP came out last month, do you have any news on an upcoming full length?

GH: I’m actually heading out to the studio in LA at the end of this month, and we will be out there for two weeks. We are hoping to get at least five songs done, and I’m not sure what we are going to do yet as far as whether we are releasing another EP or putting that towards the full length, so I guess we will see.

MEB: Are you in the process of speaking to any labels?

GH: It’s always an interesting thing, I can’t really say too much about it, but, you know, we are definitely looking for something that will be the right fit.

MEB: You were on Warped Tour this year, correct?

GH: That’s right, we just did two days.

MEB: Was it your first time doing Warped?

GH: Yeah, it was actually my first time ever going to Warped, I’ve never been to Warped at all. It was like the best two days of my life.

MEB: Do you have any funny Warped stories?

GH: It’s funny, we didn’t really have that many funny stories because we were only on it two days, but I guess it’s funny because we were so overwhelmed getting there because it’s such a ridiculous production, you know? But it was a lot of fun.

MEB: Now I am going to ask you some random personal questions. What do you do during your free time on tour?

GH: Drive, mostly. Like this tour we have had a lot of drives – long drives. But if we’re fairly close to the venue the next day and we don’t have to load in for a while, we will just see what’s in the area, like music stores and malls and stuff like that and pass out fliers and meet kids and all that kind of stuff.

MEB: What bands would you say have influenced you the most?

GH: I’ve gotten influences from all over the place, but one of my favorite artists, well actually my favorite artist of all time, is Ben Folds. Everything he does I follow.

MEB: Were you home in Chicago during Lollapalooza this year? Because I know Ben Folds was there.

GH: No we were actually playing Warped Tour the first day Lollapalooza was going on, and I ended up not going. I went last year though.

MEB: Did you watch the VMAs last night or hear about what happened between Kanye and Taylor Swift?

GH: Yes, I did.

MEB: Do you have any insight on that?

GH: (laughs) You know, I guess Kanye is gonna be Kanye no matter what. So I mean Taylor Swift definitely deserved the award, there’s no doubt about that. So it’s kinda whatever, he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do.

MEB: That’s all I have, is there anything else that you would like to add?

GH: Just to anyone reading this, please check out the MySpace, check out the music on iTunes and stuff, and check out our tour dates because we’ve got a lot coming up.

MEB: Well thanks for your time, Grant.

GH: Thanks so much.