Well, I’m not sure anyone was expecting the new M83 album to be such a goof. Even after Anthony Gonzalez cited Punky Brewster and Who’s The Boss as primary influences on his new album, I never would have predicted such zanily cartoonish cover art and a lead single without an ounce of self-serious adolescent wonder. This morning we learned the album would be called Junk, and now we get to hear its truly bizarre opening track. “Do It, Try It” sounds like the theme from a PBS kids show, albeit with colorful house piano pounding out the rhythm. Here’s a statement from Gonzalez about the project:

Anything we create today is going to end up being space junk at one point anyway, and I find it really fascinating and scary at the same time – beautiful too in a way. I have this image of pieces of humanity floating in space, lost forever. It also means that nowadays everything goes so fast and everybody is kind of throwing away art in a certain manner. People will listen to an album for instance and just pick a track they like to put on a playlist. They’re not going to take the time to listen to an album anymore because they have to jump on the next thing.

This band has reinvented itself several times over, but never quite this radically. I thought they were headed towards legacy band status, settling into a groove and repeating themselves ad nauseam. I was wrong; whether longtime M83 fans like it or not, this project is nothing if not a radical left turn. Hear “Do It, Try It” below.

Beck, Susanne Sundfør, and Steve Vai are among the album’s odd assortment of guests. Here’s the tracklist:

01 “Do It, Try It”
02 “Go!
03 “Walkway Blues
04 “Bibi The Dog
05 “Moon Crystal
06 “For The Kids
07 “Solitude
08 “The Wizard
09 “Laser Gun
10 “Road Blaster”
11 “Tension”
12 “Atlantique Sud”
13 “Time Wind”
14 “Ludivine”
15 “Sunday Night 1987″

Junk is out 4/8 on Mute. Pre-order it here.