Make no mistake, Anthony Gonzalez of M83 intentionally placed a Molly Ringwald lookalike on the cover of his latest album, Saturdays = Youth. Growing up in Antibes, a small town in the south of France, John Hughes and his redheaded muse were his childhood obsessions, and Saturdays meant watching VHS tapes with his older brother, a budding cinephile. "I felt really close with his characters," Gonzalez explains. "The movies were about teenagers in American high school, but I felt many of the same things." His favorite in the Ringwald cannon: "'Pretty in Pink'—she's really beautiful in it and just an amazing actress. I'd like to be her friend."

Shoegazey and at times dramatic, his '80s-inspired album creates the same brand of warm fuzzy nostalgia that I feel when watching "The Breakfast Club." There's a soothing familiarity to his emotional pop songs, which might be due to reference points like Tears For Fears and Cocteau Twins, but setting Gonzalez apart from other retro acts is a lack of hipster irony. At 26, he's looking back at his teen years and the music of his youth with a fond yearning; in fact, the album is actually dedicated to "all the friends, music, movies, joints, and crazy teachers that made my teenage years so great!"br>
Just don't wrongly assume he peaked back then: "I was shy and I used to skateboard a lot. Skateboarders can be considered a bit crazy, but I was quite nice. Mostly I hung out with other skaters and geeks. I was kind of in the middle, but it was ok because I had my band. Life's always better when you're in a band." Did he get in trouble? "I was arrested once for smoking a bit of hasheesh." Sounds like something that might have happened to John Bender—but methinks we're dealing with more of a Duckie Dale.

M83 plays Echoplex on May 20th; send us an email with your name, phone number and favorite '80s teen flick for a chance to win a pair of tickets!

- Caroline Stanley

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