When word first got out that Daft Punk were working on a new album, it was a pretty big deal. Aside from the work they did making the soundtrack of 2010’s Tron: Legacy, this is the first record the French megastars have released in almost a decade. It was perhaps the most anticipated album of summer 2013, and the flagship single “Get Lucky” began its climb to the top of the charts even before its official release thanks to some leaked copies of the track that were published online. Indeed, the famous duo seem to have reinvented dance music yet again with their latest release, and it is certainly a highly positive creation for the music world. Why, then, does it seem like the whole 75-minute collection has already faded into the background?
It goes practically without saying that Daft Punk are still at the top of their game, even after producing music for twenty years. It seems almost impossible to think they could make a “bad” album. They’ve both been declared knights by the French government for their contributions to music, and if such a thing is possible, this certainly isn’t the release to prove it. Random Access Memories is more lively and uplifting than any of the group’s previous releases, and altogether it’s an amazing demonstration of their ever-experimental style. If anything, the biggest mistake the album makes is that it may have been too big of a step in another direction; fans that fell in love with Daft Punk’s previous albums may have been a bit shaken by the sudden turnaround.
What makes the album so different, though? Something about the very essence of its songs just seems… unusual. Of course, it doesn’t take too much musical knowledge to be able to tell that this release is heavily inspired by early pop and disco music; rather than moving forward with everyone else, Daft Punk have successfully set themselves up to stand out by going backward in time, not forward. The strangeness that prevails throughout this album doesn’t stop at the fluid, bass-driven rhythms of tracks like “Lose Yourself to Dance” or “Give Life Back to Music.” They feel off-kilter, almost as though they aren’t the same computer-powered, program-crafted masterpieces Daft Punk has made in the past.
And they aren’t! That’s the beauty of the album: practically everything is done from scratch. From the emotional “Touch,” to the laid-back “Fragments of Time” to the memoir-esque “Giorgio by Moroder” (in which famous disco producer Giovanni Giorgio Moroder describes what it was like developing the sounds that revolutionized dance music), the musical influences go far beyond simply sampling different variations of four-to-the-floor drum beats and generating some groovy bass tunes on a computer. The music on Random Access Memories was almost entirely live-recorded, using actual instruments, in what the collaborators agreed was a sort of rebellion against music becoming too artificial.
Unfortunately, this admirable approach, as well as the relaxed, upbeat feel of the album compared to the darker, more urban sounds of, say, Homework, is probably why the songs didn’t quite take off. Even after so long, fans probably heard early samples of “Get Lucky” and expected songs more resembling the Discovery era. It’s understandable that such a drastic change (the album’s ominous finale “Contact,” in which heavy synthesizers and drums detail the arrival of alien life on Earth, is probably the closest these new songs get to any of Daft Punk’s previous work) could be jarring in comparison. But in strict regards to the album as a standalone, rather than being placed beside the nostalgic feel of earlier tracks, Random Access Memories is a beautifully-done collection, and it really shows how far the world’s favorite robots have come in their time as musicians.
So, on a measurable scale, this easily warrants at least 9 out 10 (because in all honesty, no matter how well it’s done, disco can still lose its appeal in unfortunately short time). For fans whose affections lie with songs like “Technologic” or “Da Funk,” it might be a bit too much of a change, and that’s perfectly fine. But for listeners with open ears and an appreciation for music that feels truly alive, Random Access Memories is perhaps the best thing Daft Punk has done to date.