Album Review: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Daft Punk
Random Access Memories
Rating: Meh

To me, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are essentially brilliant marketers who always seem to find the right amount of mystery, hype, and musical wherewithal to keep them in the public's eye while really not having any sort of prolific output. Granted, I will say their first two albums, Homework and Discovery, are both killer dance albums; however, since then, they have pretty much coasted on their laurels and have only released the dismal Human After All and the ho-hum soundtrack for Tron: Legacy. As fitting their marketing acumen, the lead up to the release of Random Access Memories has been suitably brilliant. Releasing short commercial teasers on SNL, promo spots at Coachella, and slyly letting "leaked" versions of first single "Get Lucky" find the light of day, there was already a built up frenzy of excitement for the new record. The biggest question was what would the album sound like. Homem-Christo and Bangalter indicated in interviews that the album was a return to a more album-oriented recording process, eschewing laptops and digital production for more traditional instrumentation and analog recording procedures.

The album definitely comes across as a reaction to the explosion of EDM across the globe and, perhaps, this "step back" was a calculated effort on the duo's behalf not to be lost in the vast sea of artists out of there. With that said, they truly could not have come up with a more jarring tonal shift on this record. Random Access Memories is short the traditional Daft Punk bangers that we are accustomed to, and heavy on 70s prog-rock, yacht rock, and disco explorations. So, in this EDM crazy market at the moment, Daft Punk has staked their own territory so to speak, if not exactly groundbreaking, it at least sounds unlike most dance records you will hear this year. And you are not likely to find a more gorgeously recorded and produced album. The warmth and sonic details here are quite impressive. The album feels full bodied and enveloping, as if you can live within its grooves.

The problem with the record, though, is that regardless of whether the record sounds great or not, if the songs aren't there to back the sound up, there certainly is no point to taking all that extra care. On first few listens, Random Access Memories felt like a major dud to me, full of very trite and tired 70s genre exercises that could basically have been done by any other act with little to minimal effort. For one, you really have to divorce yourself from the fact that this is not the Daft Punk of old. You are not going to get any four to the floor bangers heavy on samples. Instead, you are getting an "organic" Daft Punk record that basically is more designed for background lounge music than filling up huge, cavernous dance clubs. Multiple listens, while still not really giving me any wow factor, did however draw me into the warmth of the record, and for that, I will applaud them for spending what is obviously a lot of time and putting a lot of love into making the record sound wonderful. But throughout my listens, I am always kept at arms length somehow, despite the fact that there are some decent tracks on this record. When Daft Punk stops trying to make grandiose statements and just makes a good track, my interest is piqued. First single "Get Lucky," while initially sort of a non-event for me, is definitely the earworm of the record; Nile Rodgers' inviting guitar washes and the elegant disco cool of the track are hard to defend against.



And most of the major collaborations on the record actually were some of my favorites. "Instant Crush" with vocals from Julian Casablancas is surprisingly tender, and Casablanca's delivers one of his most human sounding vocals, ironic considering they are heavily vocodered.



Animal Collective's Panda Bear fits almost too comfortably within the confines of the mid-tempo electro number "Doin' It Right," his warm chants creating a nice contrast to the treated vocals.



Final track "Contact" with house producer DJ Falcon is by far the most Daft Punkian of tracks on the record, and sadly, it ends the record with you wanting a little more of that sound.



Other tracks that work well are the quietly gorgeous instrumental "Motherboard"



and the "Something About Us" referencing ballad "The Game of Love," which finds Daft Punk milking their vocodor sadness once again.



The rest of the record is wildly uneven, however, with the band failing to add much spin on already played out takes on disco and prog-rock. "Give Life Back To Music" starts the album with warmed over, disco-lite grooves and very little in the way of surprise. "Giorgio by Moroder," is a well-intentioned tribute to the disco pioneer, however, it just never comes across as anything by Daft Punk aping Moroder. "Lose Yourself To Dance," the other collaboration with Pharrell Williams, lacks the spark and life of "Get Lucky" and gets mired in lame handclaps and generic Nile Rodgers' guitar lines. And we don't need to go into much detail on the disastrous "Touch" which almost stopped the record dead in its tracks with 8+ minutes of prog-rock noodling, vampy piano rolls, and a WTF? vocal performance from Paul Williams which makes the track feel like it stepped out of an episode of The Muppet Show circa 1978.

The uneven feel of Random Access Memories detracts from it being anything other than a low-key, just ok album from the duo. I will say the record gradually gets better over the long haul, and it definitely helps to listen to the tracks as intended, as a full length album meant to be heard in sequence. I only wish there were more highs on the record, and the highs that are here, though few and far between, lacked any immediate punch that the duo have given their singles in the past. When it gets down to brass tax, Random Access Memories is a better idea than a fully realized collection of songs. It's the songs that matter, and unfortunately, Daft Punk seem to have lost that for the moment.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.