Daft Punk recently admitted that they were a little surprised by the furore surrounding their fourth album, Random Access Memories, confessing that they are struggling to come to terms the huge anticipation surrounding RAM. Speaking as a long-time fan, I can concur with this confusion, after all, where was it when the band brought out the Tron Legacy O.S.T. or Alive? If memory serves right, it wasn't even around when the duo brought out Human After All in 2005. Either way, the French electronic duo's new release is now one of the biggest moments of 2013 and although the duo are quietly confident in their work, an artist's confidence doesn't always translate into a pleasant listen for the rest of us.
This review doesn't need to talk about first single 'Get Lucky' too much, we've all heard it and we all know that it's an instant classic. The vivacious disco-funk single doesn't come until after the halfway point in the album though, and this effervescent tone isn't really felt on the album until the few tracks before 'Get Lucky' kick in. Ok, album opener 'Give Life Back To Music' contains all the buoyancy of a million disco classics, but the immediate aftermath is a much slower progression, only gradually building until we reach the foot-tappingly good mid-section of the album, where we really begin to hear those sought after disco grooves. The album often drifts in and out of joy and melancholy, and 'Give Life Back To Music' carries both exuberance and a sense of despondency, the closing bars before the song changes to 'Game Of Love,' retaining an inherent sense of sadness, perhaps directed towards the duo's longing for the era where disco reigned supreme, and where their sound was moulded from.
'Game of Love' has all the makings of a brilliant heartbreak ballad, comparing with past tracks 'Something About Us' from their brilliant 2001 album Discovery. But in terms of despondency, the Chilly Gonzalez collaboration 'Within' really stands out as the most heartbreaking track. The opening lines 'There are so many things that I don't understand/there's a world within me that I cannot explain' could stand for so many things, but these 'things' and this 'world' sound as though they are steeped in nostalgia. Daft Punk may be robots, but they are robots with heart.
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