RETRO REVIEW: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
A celebration of music itself.
I’ve been writing reviews of music for several years now, and as I get back into writing regularly, I thought I could repost some of my favorite reviews I’ve written here. Today I’m throwing it back to the incomparable Random Access Memories, Daft Punk’s final masterpiece released 12 years ago today. You can find the original review on my AOTY account here, which I wrote in the wake of the Daft Punk’s breakup in 2021.
The rollout for Random Access Memories was truly unforgettable. The snippets of music on SNL, the release of the track list on Vine (giving the infant platform some notoriety), the videos with the album's collaborators, the leaks, and the launch of the album in the Australian desert town of Wee Waa. Wee Waa I tell you! It was enough press for a summer blockbuster, unlike any other record I can think of during my 26+ years of life. And seemingly against all odds, the album lived up the hype and more.
On "Giorgio by Moroder", Moroder himself talks about wanting to combine the sounds of the 50's, the sounds of the 60's, the sounds of the 70's in his music. Daft Punk took that thought and ran with it. RAM flies through decades of stylistic ideas with beautiful grace, no more exemplified than on said track. Elements of disco, electronica, orchestral scores and more all surround Moroder's spoken words, and every element is magnetic. "Touch" similarly summarizes the sounds of RAM thematically, and in my opinion, in a better way. At times like a robot's cry for help, at times like a Disney song, and sold by Paul Williams' stellar vocal performance, it's the creative peak of a duo at their all time peak. Of course, the most notable marriage of old and new for Daft Punk is "Get Lucky", the smash hit that you couldn't get away from in the summer of '13. Still to this day it's an indelible combination of disco, dance and pop, with Pharrell's vocals, Nile Rodgers' guitar and Daft Punk's sonic mastery coalescing into one of the greatest songs of the 2010's.
When they weren't summarizing their ideas on single songs, they broke down the influences on singular tracks that stand as sharp as any group has ever made. Opener "Give Life Back To Music" lives up to the title by invigorating Daft Punk's sound with more prominent guitars and drums than ever before. They blend together with the classic vocoder vocals like no one's business, and that combo works through the whole record. The big single-worthy songs are all magnificent, like the repetition of "Doin' It Right" with Panda Bear or the suave yacht rock feel of "Fragments Of Time" with Todd Edwards. These guests bring vibrant life to the tracks they're involved on, with the aforementioned vocalists in both performance in lyricism to the producers like Chilly Gonzalez and DJ Falcon who bring an expected amount of dance influence. The more instrumental heavy tracks are lovely downtempo moments on the record, and help the record flow even better.
The grandiosity of RAM's rollout was mighty fitting of the music to follow. The album is always towering with ideas and musical excellence. It has a rolodex of guests that are still impressive to this day. The result was a hype train that was both label manufactured and fan generated, a rare combination of satisfying everyone at the same time. Random Access Memories is more than just a great Daft Punk album, it's a celebration of music itself.
Verdict: 9.3/10
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