Tuesday, June 4, 2013
With last month seeing the release of Daft Punk’s new album, Random Access Memories, I thought it would only be right for us to review it!
I’ve been a fan of Daft Punk for a long while now. I will admit that I didn’t hear their first album, Homework, until long after it was released, and that my first experience with their work was Discovery. Most people identify Discovery as their favorite Daft Punk album (well, those of us that actually listen to their music) and it makes a whole lot of sense why. Discovery is a masterpiece of an album, and one of my favorites of all time. But I’m not here to review that, so let me move on. Ever since I heard Discovery, when it was released in 2001, I thought that Daft Punk was awesome and could do no wrong. Somehow, though, they fell off my radar. I completely missed Human After All when it came out in 2005, but I don’t think I missed anything special. This album wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t quite as fluid and beautifully thought out as Discovery was.
So, when I heard that Daft Punk had a new album coming out, I thought it would be really cool to review, not just because I love some of the band’s previous work, but because I write reviews now and I’m always searching for more things to talk about! So...I guess this is where I begin...
Let me just be blunt: this album is awesome. No, it’s not as good as Discovery (honestly, I don’t think they will ever top themselves there) but it is also nothing like Discovery, either. Just like all of their other albums, Daft Punk went for a completely different feel on this one. Homework was straight techno, with the repetitive strings that everyone has become accustomed to with the genre. Then Discovery was a beautiful blend of techno with rock. Human After All can only be described as “robots.” If you’ve listened to it, you know what I mean. But then RAM came out and people were caught off guard by just how normal it sounds. The concept behind this album, which I really love, was to capture the sound of music throughout the generations (but clearly with a slightly Daft Punk-y feel to it all.) They have some really funky songs, some 80’s rock-ish songs, and some cool techno-y songs.
For this album they brought in a lot of outside collaborators, from several different genres, to help give the album the distinction between tracks that they were looking for. I thought that this worked absolutely perfectly, getting some great vocal performances out of people like: Paul Williams, Julian Casablancas, Todd Edwards, and Panda Bear.
Overall, I think that this album is accessible to almost everyone. It really took a bold turn (once again) for the band, and it makes me even more excited for their next album! Go listen to it if you haven’t already...and if you haven’t heard Discovery, then you are dead to me.
