Sub4Love

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

[Long and good to listen as you go as it is a track breakdown (ish) too - those of a lazy disposition wanting the crux of my analysis straight away skip to the last two paragraphs]

One of the most tantalising advertising campaigns of recent times was executed to pin point precision by a couple of robots whose new album is almost unarguably the most anticipated in 10 years. Employing festival screen adverts and ad break hijacks instead of banner ads has whipped the world into a frenzy. Immediately iconic album artwork revealed with clear indication to the 70’s and 80’s in the album name typeface confirmed by lead single and omnipresent Nile-athon Get Lucky.

All the signs were there. Everything was looking good. There was no way Get Lucky could be the best song on there either or even if the other tracks were as refreshing and new as that we’d be happy. We knew they’d ditched the electronic stuff mostly but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a dance record. Look at Kool and the Gang! And Chic! There was a palpable notion dance music could be about to take a turn away from laptops and return to be revived with real life and real music in real studios…

I’m desperate to love this record but it isn’t going to happen. By the same margin it isn’t awful. It sets out with the kind of immediate presence and announced arrival you would like before breaking down to a ‘we’re gonna hold back for a bit’ lower key track than an explosive all stops pulled. Singing about bringing life back to music they are referring to the now-soulless word of EDM. It is a good opener you enjoy knowing it is the appetiser for the next hour of your life you have donated to the robots.

What happened though is they take it down to a mellow filler track. The type usually reserved for track 8 or 9 of a 10 or 11 track album. The kind of track that makes up the time. It’s a pleasant mellow ballad track during which you are thinking, this is nice but where is this going? Next up is the much better Giorgio by Moroder. Sure to be a cult hit it starts with an insightful interview with the man himself before an 80’s synth master-class is unleashed. Sounding at times like a cheap synth album it steers just shy by executing a marvellous breakdown, with guitars and building pressure towards the end. At the very end is when your pulse starts racing as you realise this is the warm up. The previous two tracks were scene setting for the dance, soul, funk, groove experience you come to expect from Daft Punk - particularly with Nile Rogers about. Your pulse begins to race in time with the Moog click as it comes down the pitch spectrum and seem to start a bass beat you think will lead into an electronic banger… nope.

Instead we are treated to a great track made unwelcome by that anticipation. Within is a beautiful song but like The Game of Love in track two it is misplaced and causes yet another false start. At this point I’m beginning to lose faith anything of any substance will materialise. As much as it is a favourite track, it is still not what I’m wanting, nay demanding.

Instant Crush indicates the beginning of a crescendo (especially as you see Get Lucky fast approaching in the set list). Julian Casablancas guests and it is a great track. In fact it was trending worldwide shortly after the unveiling of the stream. This is what we came here for. This is Daft Punk. It is followed by the equally superb Lose Yourself to Dance where Pharrell Williams makes his entrance. A superb pair of tracks and worth buying the album for alone along with the Get Lucky album version which has additional funk and sounds more complete that the single. Though sadly Get Lucky is separated from its guest partner track by Paul Williams on Touch. Touch is an odd and mixed track but not without identity. It is probably the slow burning favourite that people haven’t noticed yet. It undulates from crooning to the 70’s styling’s seen throughout the album to a more ballad feel. A little unbalanced but plenty to be liked.

The transition from Touch to Get Lucky is well executed in feel as it feels as though it picks you up out of a plush bed to get on the dance floor and warm up. At this point we’re thinking ‘slow burn, third time lucky?’ As previously mentioned the album version is more complete in every way. It really is a masterpiece and deserves its mantle as song of the summer.

Beyond follows and we are back to Sunset Boulevard cocktail ballads. Motherboard feels like a trip across their motherboard that you yet again could lead into a crescendo of old school Daft Punk. Nope, we end up back at a collaboration track Fragments of Time, which is another one due to be lost in the frustration but stand alone is a little too country and western but a good track with some interesting ideas across it. Followed by the fantastic Doin’ it Right feat Animal Collective’s Panda Bear. Final track Closer gives us the EDM dose we’ve waited for but it’s too little too late.

So to sum up it is very much 50 50 and could yet be a grower. Either way it is unbalanced and ill judged. I wonder if a rejig of the track order and a little track crossover may have dealt a few more aces. There is a MASSIVE HUGE GIGANTIC ‘BUT’ though. It is this. Daft Punk have said they will be remixing their own tracks. They have also said they won’t be touring this album. This is awesome news all round. No-one wants to try and dance to crooning but if you deconstruct Daft Punk’s masterpiece Discovery it is all samples. Every track on there is lifted from something in the 70’s and 80’s. I have a hunch (and I really desperately hope I am right) that the pay-off for the perpetual false start frustration throughout the record is that this project is bigger than we know yet. I reckon they are working on remixing and sampling their own tracks into more what we expect. I’m not going to assume an album or even EP but I do think the remixes may just be the pay off.

A further point to make in their defence is that they are nothing short of revolutionary, ground-breaking and original in everything they do. Even the Tron soundtrack was like nothing heard before. The mission statement here was clearly to ditch the tech and make a feel good album. Mission accomplished. Yes, it wasn’t what you expected. Yes it isn’t what the band name suggests but it is original and actually regardless of the nay-sayers the quality of the music is exceptional. Truly. It is a magnificent sunset strip, Miami vice soundtrack designed for cocktails and linen suits. It’s the type of album that would make even a glimmer of sunshine on Morecombe beach feel like a blaze in the Caribbean drinking rum. It is the ultimate pool party jukebox. The issue here is not the music but expectation management. We were promised a Daft Punk album and we didn’t get one. It doesn’t mean that what we got is bad. We can just hope patience is a virtue worth having as we await the Daft Punk remixes. In the meantime there is plenty to enjoy but maybe rearrange the tracks to make for a more comfortable ride.