PixlBit

I'm at the library right now, and these two kids across from me are playing Bloons TD5. Let me tell you, they suck at playing it. There is a sort of art form of playing Bloons, and these kids are sh*tting right over it.

Sorry I wasn't on last week, I was away at camp. What sort of camp you ask? TECH CAMP! Simply put, when we weren't learning how to program, we were playing Team Fortress 2! So apperantly, I missed a FFXIV meetup. Blegh. I could have been in that.

Anyways, on to the main topic of the blog.

Ever since the new Daft Punk album came out, I wanted to do a review of it. This blog post won't have anything to do about games, but if you were expecting that, I don't blame you. What, you say? This is a gaming website? I should only post things about video games? WELL GUESS WHAT.

I. DONT. CARE. Free country mofo's! MURRICA'! (Happy belated Independence Day!)

(Disclamer: This will be my first legit, straight up, full length, uncensored, sexy, uncaged review of something. Constructive criticism is welcome!)

It's been 8 years since Daft Punk has released a studio album. In that time, much has happened. A black man has been elected president, there are now 15 Final Fantasies, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has passed away, indie games have seen a huge peak in popularity, and amidst all this confusion, the need for a return to a simpler time has arisen. With their new album, Random Access Memories, Daft Punk attempts to do just that in the typical Daft Punk fashion of doing things.

What is the Daft Punk way of doing things? Well, in my opinion, Daft Punk is about change. Their first album, Homework, was a sort of wake up call to the world. "Hey, guys, electronic music is cool!". With their second album, Discovery, they ditched the hard beats of the bass and the drum and opted for a more melodic, sample based, sound. The result was one of the most original sounding albums in my opinion, second only to greats like The Dark Side of the Moon. Their third album, Human After All, was a sort of mix of the two, with hard bass and drums and lots and lots of repetition. This album wasn't really recieved well by critics, however it did have a few stand-out tracks. They rebounded from this with their phenominal, Grammy winning live album, Alive 2007, which mashed up some of their most popular songs. Seriously, this album is great. Listen to Harder Better Faster Stronger/Around the World (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5__Ogi4Tek), and you will know what I mean. Daft Punk also composed the sountrack to the 2011 hit movie, Tron Legacy which proved their aptitude for working with live instrumentation.

Random Access Memories draws from all the experiences Daft Punk has had. This album is very varied and is comprised of many genres, so the only way to do a review of it justice is by a track-by-track. Here we go!:

1. Give Life Back to Music

 This track starts the album off with a bang, and a good one at that. Give it a minute and the chorus sets in, "Let the music in tonight/
Just turn on the music/
Let the music of your life/
Give life back to music /"

This alone tells you what Daft Punk was going for when they made this album, they wanted to make music what music was, and give life back to it. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album and is definetly a stand-out.

2. The Game of Love

This song is more melancholy, and sets the tone for the rest of the first half of the album. It's not one of my more favorite tracks because the vocoded voice is a bit rough on the ears and gets a bit annoying after a while. It also is very slow moving, in a boring sort of way, with the melody also being boring.

3. Giorgio by Moroder

Now this is the song that got reviewers in a doozy. Some claimed the song to be among Daft Punk's greatest works, while others found this track less favorable. I find myself to be on the love it to death side of the fence. This song is basically Giorgio Moroder, a famous producer for singers like Donna Summer and David Bowie, narrarating his rise as a musician. It's also quite a beast to listen to, as it is 9 minutes long. The build up in this track is amazing and the payoff is even more rewarding.

"My name is Giovanni Giorgio, but everybody calls me Giorgio" and then the synth kicks in and it's like you're back in the 70's. Another standout track on this album.

4. Within

This is another more melancholy track, however I prefer this one over The Game of Love because the piano work and words in this song are done beautifully by the amazing Chilly Gonzales. This one is also a bit slow, and like before, the vocoder can get a bit messy.

5. Instant Crush

This track is where all of the collaborations start, and for this song, Julian Casablancas tears it up. Normally, autotune is "FROWNED UPON, IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT" (lol etrade baby), but in this track, it gives a wonderful robotic feel to his falsetto. This is another great track that I even found my sister, who is a self proclaimed Daft Punk hater to be listening to.

6. Lose Yourself to Dance

Let me tell you, this song is CATCHY! For this track, Daft Punk partnered with Pharell Williams for the vocals and Nile Rodgers (of Chic fame) for guitar. Normally, this song would be awesome, but the vocoded "come on"'s added an extra layer to this already standout song.

7. Touch

With this song, reviewers were on both sides of the fence as well. I, personally loved it. The build up in this song is also amazing and Paul Williams does justice to the psuedo Broadway style they were going for. The track ends on a sad, "I need something more..." and that more comes in the form of...

8. Get Lucky

This is the first single off of this album, which came out before the album was released, which was May 17th. Last time I checked (yesterday), it was number 5 on the top 10 iTunes list. It's been in the top 5 for three months. Need I say any more?

9. Beyond

This track has an epic opening...

and then it falls flat. This is also a more sad, slow song, with the only thing really differentiating it from The Game of Love and Within is the opening.

10. Motherboard

This song is just instrumental it feels like it could have been a track off of the Tron Legacy soundtrack, which isn't a bad thing. It's very jazzy and it's been stuck in my head today. It's kind of great backround mood music. Another one of my favorites.

11. Fragments of Time

Man, this song. I got one of my friends hooked on Daft Punk with just this and Get Lucky. In an interview with Todd Edwards, the vocals on this track, he commented that the song was inspired by bands like Fleetwood Mac, and this really shows. At first, I thought this track was going to be like a typical Todd Edwards song, very cut and paste (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKJfJMMsqX4), but I was surprised to hear that it did indeed sound like Fleetwood Mac. And the rumors are true, whenever you listen to this song, you feel like you're driving in California into the sunset  .

12. Doin' it Right

This song is very simple and reminiscent of earlier Daft Punk days. Panda Bear, who does the vocals and the drums on this is amazing as usual. I would argue that this song sounds more like a Panda Bear track than a Daft Punk track, but that again isn't a bad thing. It is also one of my favorite tracks on the album.

13. Contact

This song is, simply put, the best way to end an album I've ever seen. Literaly using samples directly from NASA missions, DJ Falcon and Daft Punk create an epic of a song that ends the listener in amazement. and wonder.

Phew, that took an hour to type all of that! Now for the wrap up.

Daft Punk, along with the talented list of collaborators, have managed to awe the brain using the power of music once again, this time trancending all of time and finding inspiration for songs in the most unlikely of places. Where will Daft Punk go from here? I'm hoping for a tour but with live instrumentation instead of DJing. However, all hopes for a tour in the near future are dashed because of Daft Punk publicly stating that they would like to focus on promoting the album now instead of developing new material. I guess they deserve this well earned break.

Final score: 4.5 stars out of 5   

So, what do you guys think of the album?