Random Access Memories

by 
AlbumMay 17 / 201313 songs, 1h 14m 37s
Disco Electronic
Popular Highly Rated

There is an early Daft Punk track named “Teachers” that, effectively, served as a roll call for the French duo’s influences: Paul Johnson, DJ Funk, DJ Sneak. Within the context of 1997’s *Homework*, “Teachers” presented the group as bright kids ready to absorb the lessons of those who came before them. But it also marked Daft Punk as a group with a strong, dynamic relationship to the past whose music served an almost dialogic function: They weren’t just expressing themselves, they were talking to their inspirations—a conversation that spanned countries, decades, styles and technological revolutions. So while the live-band-driven sound of 2013’s *Random Access Memories* was a curveball, it was also a logical next step. The theatricality that had always been part of their stage show and presentation found its musical outlet (“Giorgio by Moroder,” the Paul Williams feature “Touch”), and the soft-rock panache they started playing with on 2001’s *Discovery* got a fuller, more earnest treatment (“Within,” the Julian Casablancas feature “Instant Crush,” the I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-The-Doobie-Brothers moves of “Fragments of Time”). The concept, as much as the album had one, was to suggest that as great as our frictionless digital world may be, there was a sense of adventurousness and connection to the spirit of the ’70s that, if not lost, had at least been subdued. “Touch” was “All You Need Is Love” for the alienation of a post-*Space Odyssey* universe; “Give Life Back to Music” wasn’t just there to set the scene, it was a command—just think of all the joy music has brought *you*. “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself to Dance”—spotlights both for Pharrell and the pioneering work of Chic’s Nile Rodgers—recaptured the innocence of early disco and invited their audience to do the same. There was joy in it, but there was melancholy, too: Here was a world seen through the rearview, beautiful in part because you couldn’t quite go back to it. “As we look back at the Earth, it’s, uh, up at about 11 o’clock, about, uh, well, maybe 10 or 12 diameters,” the sampled voice of astronaut Eugene Cernan says on “Contact.” “I don\'t know whether that does you any good. But there\'s somethin’ out there.” This was the Apollo 17 mission, December 1972. It remains the last time humans have been on the moon.

8.8 / 10

Daft Punk's new album Random Access Memories finds them leaving behind the highly influential, riff-heavy EDM they originated to luxuriate in the sounds, styles, and production techniques of the 1970s and early 80s.

B

After pioneering the electronic dance-music movement in the ’90s, Daft Punk has spent more than a decade watching as devoted followers have slowly pushed it closer to the mainstream. Though a few notable innovators made an original mark and moved on (like LCD Soundsystem), the genre has been increasingly usurped by…

8 / 10

Daft Punk have enjoyed near-universal acclaim over 20 years and three albums but ‘Random Access Memories’ is their greatest achievement: an ambitious masterpiece you can’t imagine being made by anyone other than Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo.

9 / 10

The French duo have not only made a career-defining album, but the smartest dance album since disco.

This month's album releases reviewed by the Evening Standard's music critics

6.2 / 10

Sasha Frere-Jones' review of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories baffled many in the critic's corner this week as he insisted that this album asks, "Does good music have to be good?"

French duo Daft Punk helped create our current stadium-shaking, Coachella-dominating dance-music moment, and their new album is by far the year’s most anticipated EDM set.

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10 / 10

From there, Random Access Memories is a thrilling, grandiose album that defies expectations.

8.5 / 10

With an album as hyped as this, Daft Punk's first LP in eight years if you discount the Tron: Legacy score, it's probably worthwhile actually addressing the instantly tossed off online community reactions.

6 / 10

Clash reviews 'Random Access Memories', the new album by French disco duo Daft Punk, featuring guests including Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers and Panda Bear, and including the single 'Get Lucky'

<p>The French 'robots' turn gloriously human to subvert all the rules of electronic dance music, writes<strong> Kitty Empire</strong></p>

Random Access Memories is simultaneously the most narcissistic and selfless gesture in Daft Punk’s career so far.

8 / 10

8.9 / 10

Review - Daft Punk "Random Access Memories" by Northern Transmissions. "Random Access Memories" by Daft Punk will be released May 21st on Columbia Records

The French dance duo throw down the gauntlet to their imitators on their eagerly-awaited new album, writes <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>

85 %

By now, you all know the story: not just the hubbub surrounding Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, but everything in the French duo’s career leading up to it.

Album Reviews: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

80 %

3.5 / 5

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories review: Away from the conversation about the albums promotion, Random Access Memories is loaded with nostalgia and plenty for Daft Punk fans to enjoy.

Daft Punk's Random Access Memories is the boldest, smartest, most pleasurable dance album of this decade, says Neil McCormick.

Random Access MemoriesArtist: Daft PunkGenre: PopLabel: ColubmiaGreat expectations can scupper even robots.

Do YOU believe the hype? CD review by Joe Muggs

8 / 10