Daft Punk
Random Access Memories

I'll start with a nice premise: this is not a track by track review. Amen.

To talk about this album, one must focus on the spirit that characterizes it and the entire Daft Punk universe.

After two decades of pounding music (at a very high level, mind you, stuff that set new standards in the industry), these two helmeted heads have decided to shock fans with a sharp turn towards the classic album (sampling becomes studio guitar riffs. In short, it's played).

The reason for this shift, I don't think, is commercial, but it could stem from a constructive self-criticism of the transalpine duo (who with the money and fame they have can afford to do whatever they want). In an era dominated by HORRIBLE dance music, cold, increasingly computerized, and annoyingly TUNZ TUNZ, there was absolutely a need for someone, ESPECIALLY from the industry, to say "STOP!" to this mess of cursed noises. The stop came from those who owe their success to tunz tunz (classy, but still tunz), and this is an excellent sign, brave and that could be an epochal turning point (do you think many won't try to copy them now? Fatboy Slim is already thinking about it..).

It must be admitted that it's strange to know that in this current bland musical landscape a lesson in music doesn't come from classical musicians but from a couple of French disc jockeys. These two have given a lesson to EVERYONE. Classical musicians should take note of how to produce a quality album, and next time produce good records instead of being outdone by two DJs. And as for all you disappointed fans who wanted a new TUNZ record, I am very happy about your disappointment. Serves you right! If you want to "tunz", there's always David horror Guetta, the last of the antichrists.

And so the two DJ robots, after calling on the best musicians around, resurrect the incredible sound of the masterpieces of Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, and Donna Summer, merging them with Daft Punk's futuristic vocalizations.

It's called FUNKY, and if you don't dance to this kind of music, it means that something inside you is dying, or you've been dead for years... since you used to lower your car windows raising the volume to maximum with David troll manure Guetta. If you want to live well, you need a bit of James Brown in your blood, otherwise, you're a damned zombie and you don't know it.

Am I being incredibly sycophantic to Daft Punk? A fanatical FAN praising an album excessively? No.. not this time! Electronically, they're not even my favorites, and this album also has its flaws. But as mentioned at the beginning of the review, no track by track. I'll list the strengths and weaknesses of the album according to me. Let's start with the strengths:

STRENGTHS

Before hitting "play," I had the TERROR of being assaulted by eight-minute tracks of techno/trash/rock metal loops obsessively at the minimum of sound processing, in short, like "Human After All" (album). Fortunately, there are no Robot Rock crap! (which yeah.. was funny but, christ.. it was a prank, come on!). The album starts with a colossal Nile Rodgers-style guitar riff followed by a base that in a handful of seconds takes us back to the 70s disco on board the delorean 555 (get it?). Then, however, the vocoder comes in, and here.. it's not a Chic album, it's a modern Daft Punk album! But is it ancient or modern? There.. this thing excites me. There is no answer. It's a timeless album, distant eras and emotions are united, mixed by two skillful DJs who this time mix feelings, not turntables. When you hear a track like "Give Life Back to Music," with its warm guitar and its drumming marking the rhythm of an era, you can't help but rejoice and judge poorly those who, listening to the CD, complain because they can't dance. Read again what I wrote above: you're dead inside.

This is dance music! With every immaculate bass round, I imagine David Guetta dying in terrible pain on the console surrounded by the flames of hell, for fuck's sake.

The album continues its marvelous robotic revival journey, showcasing ideas and sounds from another planet. The feeling is that you're dealing with aliens who, on their planet, recreate the sounds of our past for their own kind. Yes.. that's exactly the feeling. Everything sounds new even if already heard. Then don't say that Daft Punk aren't two geniuses deep down.

Those who say the album is sort of a "Discovery" but significantly inferior are hugely mistaken. This album is an improvement of Discovery to the max. A sequel that improves the original. The melodic pop concepts expressed in Discovery here are expanded, reducing the TUNZ component to focus on those types of harmonies they had in mind back then. Only now they use real musicians instead of machines, thus the sound result is inevitably better. "The Game Of Love" is a beautiful sonic evolution of "Something About Us," while the concept expressed with "Veridis Quo" is widely revisited with sound improvements in various pieces of the album. So comparing an album with such sonic ambitions to an old CD of sampled music is a bit daring. They are two great works but in different ways. This album has a refinement and a sound quality like never before.

It would deserve a separate review (or even a thesis) the track dedicated to Giorgio Moroder. Nine minutes of electronica, Rock, Jazz, prog, marking a new peak (all while Giorgio talks to us about how he became a god of electronics. Orgasmic!). Tell me which rotten modern dance album has ever featured something similar!

Skipping the other tracks... saying that the played style fused with Daft Punk's touch permeates the whole album and gives vital lifeblood for our nostalgic dance veins.

WEAKNESSES:

Damn, it's long! I'd say that 16 short tracks would have been better than 13 very long tracks. Some tracks suffer from excessive repetitiveness. A repetitiveness Daft has accustomed us to.. but not enough. In this album, sincerely, I would have avoided incessantly blasted riffs like the loops of the previous album, even if you have to admit that here they are much more beautiful and elaborated. Yet a great funky track like "Lose Yourself to Dance" despite starting out as wonderful.. after a while it risks exhausting you. Stretched so long that you wonder "do they need to extend the album duration because they don't have other tracks available?" I hope not! Probably during recording, they dragged it out as a sign of product masturbation. Pure complacency, but after a while, it wears thin.

Not to mention "Get Lucky," which in the album version becomes a sort of extended remix like those found on YouTube made by fans. What's the need to extend the chorus indefinitely? It lacks the bite and perfect timing of the radio edit. The song is a hit, but on the album, it disappoints.

"The Daft Punk have given soul to the vocoder and synthesizer" eh no! That was done by AIR! Many years ago, and they do play instruments! Let's not make these comparisons. I am praising you... but you're still two DJs. So with the warm and seductive vocoder of "The Game Of Love," you discover lukewarm water.

Now let's talk about the ABSOLUTE EVIL: there is that "Instant Crush" which yes.. musically it’s nice, but.. the way they distorted Julian Casablancas's voice reminds me of a piece of that piece of ..... David Guetta! I can't digest the chorus, it reminds me of Guetta and I am seized by damn homicidal urges.

"Contact" the closing track, very nice BUT... is it a piece by the Chemical Brothers? I can't conceive of an electronic psychedelic rock piece that isn't by the chemical brothers. I listen to it and think of them. It's not a Daft Punk piece. Beautiful but it clashes with the spirit of the album.

In conclusion:

Goodbye Tunz Tunz, back to the melody of yesteryear, Daftpunkian voices and synthesizers serving the most danceable funky in the world. Sound production to die for. Disappointment for fans who wanted to dance boom boom boom like in "Homework." A beautiful album! (but too looooooong).