Eight years after their last proper album and a few years after their soundtrack for film sequel ‘Tron Legacy’, Daft Punk are back with ‘Random Access Memories’, their fourth studio album. With their first number one under their belt thanks to ‘Get Lucky’ and now with the album at number one as well, the French duo are getting more commercial recognition than ever before. If you’d said to me a few years ago that a Daft Punk track would be playlisted on BBC Radio 2 I would have laughed at you, but here we are in 2013 with the electronic artist hitting the big time.
There are lots of accusations you can throw in the direction of album number four. It’s a much more commercial, poppy, rnb affair in parts and I imagine there are some fans calling them a sell out. But, as one of these long-term fans myself from the days of ‘Homework’, I can say that I like the new direction they’ve taken. Learning from the more orchestral and movie feel of their previous soundtrack, they have adapted those styles into their electronic roots to create a 75-minute long EP that falls somewhere between the funk and house of ‘Homework’ and the more structured songs of ‘Discovery’, with very little of the repetitive loops of ‘Human After All’ to be heard, which in some ways is a shame as that was my favourite of their three albums (don’t flame me for that!).
It feels that, in creating ‘Random Access Memories’, Daft Punk have taken the path that Fatboy Slim took several years ago: abandoning the repetitive hooks and going down a more commercially structured song.
But, each Daft Punk album has been different, and this is a strong follow-up with influences of ELO, Sparks and the many contributors that appear on the record. More so than ever this feels like a collaborative piece and it shows in the variety of tracks and, at times, the lack of cohesion. But it’s an album that will keep you hooked for most of its running time – it lacks power near the end – thanks to its ability to do different things and play with your expectations.
Opening track ‘Give Life Back To Music’ mixes a dramatic opening with the sounds of a 1980s cartoon series, plus a funkier take on the Ting Tings’ ‘Shut Up And Let Me Go’. It’s a powerful opener to the album with a great summery feel and sets up the LP perfectly with its memorable titular hook.
The next two tracks continue the retro feel, this time with music that comes straight from the soundtracks to some mid-1990s SNES video games. ‘The Game of Love’ feels like a piece of music from a ‘Donkey Kong Country 2’ level with a simple vocoder lyrical layer. It sounds like a modern take on ‘Something About Us’ but feels more accomplished than previous works, being much more progressive and layered, though sacrificing the hooks of their third album.
Track three continues the 8-bit vibe but dominates the first two minutes with an interview with one of the collaborators with a coffee shop then funky backing. It does, though, become a darker, synth-led piece of music with jazz and funk undertones. Mostly instrumental, this 9-minutes ode does hold your interest.
Onto track four and ‘Within’ signals a change in the album to a more operatic vibe. With the feel of a real piano permeating through the track, playing a brilliant, riff and the vocoder vocals mixing well, it could be a genuine pop-ballad if sung normally. A shorter song than previous entries on the album, it’s a touching tune that is one of the best on the piece.
With elements of the Killers in the music and the Hoosiers in its falsetto delivery, ‘Instant Crush’ boasts one of the big catchy choruses on the record but the stylised vocals don’t really do the songs justice, but the guitar licks are great.
Follow-up ‘Lose Yourself To Dance’ is the first of the truly pop and rnb inspired tracks on the album, with Pharrell Williams not only lending his vocals to the track but his NERD-style composition, creating possibly the slickest and most non-Daft Punk song we’ve heard outside of the lead single and this looks to be the next follow up.
Track number seven – ‘Touch’ – is my favourite on the album with an ethereal, space-travel-like opening, and is how I’d imagine the lead track from a ‘Wall E’ music composed by Andrew Lloyd-Webber would sound like. With elements of ‘Windmills of my Mind’ in parts and a raga piano riff straight out of ‘I Will Survive’, alongside a beat from ‘Shaft’, it feels like a collection of influences and a hotchpotch of ideas, but one that works as a cohesive track. The vocoder-riff around ‘If you love is the answer, you’re home’ comes in late but adds to the track, to form one of the strongest tracks on the album and a beautiful, eccentric piece.
Lead single ‘Get Lucky’ follows, here in an extended album form to the familiar radio and advert-hungry tune, and is the most overtly commercial piece on the album. The perfect summer track, it mixes classic Daft Punk – there is a distinct ‘Around The World’-style beat running through it – with a heavy pop influence from Pharrell Williams. A great shift in direction for the band but one that is exceptionally memorable and catchy, and deserves the attention it is receiving, even if it is possibly the biggest departure on the piece from the classic DP sound.
From here ‘Random Access Memories’ never really reaches a bigger height than what has come before. The dramatic Zelda-like opening of ‘Beyond’ powers the record ahead but is a black sheep opening for the rest of the piece, leading into the first average tracks of the record. The ‘Days of Pearly Spencer’-vibe from ‘Motherboard’ adds to the sombre, instrumental atmosphere of track ten, and the commercial feel continues with the funky, poppy, catchy ‘Fragments of Time’ which, alongside the well mixed elements of ‘Doin’ It Right’, with a very memorable titular hook, boosts the album.
LP closer ‘Contact’, with its heavy Apollo 17 sampling, and considerable lifting of the Sherbs ‘We Ride Tonight’ opening minute (the only sample on the record), is an atmospheric and powerful instrumental closing that screams space and descends into bassy noise and crackles of radio interference and cassette tape breaking apart. Not the strongest end to an album but a sonic experience nonetheless.
Overall ‘Random Access Memories’ is a thoroughly enjoyable album that constantly holds your attention thanks to its mixture of styles and ability to embrace different musical genres and do something different. It might feel at times that the French twosome have sold out but they are known for adapting their music. It lacks the killer tunes of ‘Discovery’ or ‘Human After All’ but in their place are more confident and orchestrally brilliant pieces of music that balance their robotic feel and synthesiser focus with more real-world instrumentation, and it’s all the better for it.
Those expecting an album in the same vibe to ‘Get Lucky’ as opposed to a more traditional Daft Punk album will have some tracks to enjoy here but find it’s not as outwardly poppy as that lead single will lead them to believe. It’s a perfect breeding ground for old fans and news fans to meet, with a little bit for everyone. It doesn’t surpass ‘Human After All’ for me as the duo at their strongest when it comes to hooks, but creatively they’ve never been better. Welcome back Daft Punk.
(8/10)
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