So this week I took reuben's recommendation and listened to Daft Punk's random access memories, the prolific french dance music duo's 4th album, released 2013. Unlike their previous albums, it moves away from sample-based music construction and utilised session musicians and a range of guest vocalists. But is it good?
Well, yes. The pair manage to construct a very funky and dancey collection of tracks, with a good range of textures whilst still maintaining a consistent aesthetic. This album of course contains "get lucky", the band's most succesful mainstream single, often called "sound of the summer", which serves as a good indicator for the rest of the album. Some of my other favourite songs here are Girogio by Moroder and Touch, tho pretty much all of the tracks with guest vocalists are generally solid.
That being said, the tracks with just the robot vocals feel like they could become grating after a while, as well as the seemingly random orchestral part at the beginning of Beyond, and the spoken word at the start of Giorgio. Additionally, the album clocks in at a hefty 76 minutes, and I already have a pretty big dispostion against hour long + albums. The album doesnt exactly bring anything new to the table- despite not being offensive massively, it isn't groundbreaking either.
But now it sounds like i hate the album, which i don't. The whole thing is packed with funky rhythms from front to back, the songs are irrestistably dancey. Whereas alot of dance albums i'm a fan of tend to guide the listener through big drops and big smacking drum lines, this one tends towards a more subtle, groovy-er approach which kinda makes the robot vocals fit, as well as the unfiltered guest vocals.
Some of my other favourite songs were instant crush and fragments of time, the first for it's sticky piano melody and the second for it's cool lyrical imagery, but then there're tracks like within that i can recall nothing from. I feel like the album could've done with a bit more editing to maybe bring down it's insane runtime, but all the tracks are at least fine whilst they last. Overall it's a pretty good album, but I'd rather listen to cross by justice.
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