Four years of high school English, three terms writing for The Dartmouth, and that's the only word I can think of to describe "Random Access Memories," the newest album from French dance floor legends Daft Punk. Wow.
You might be quick to attribute my speechlessness to the last remaining vestiges of post-Green Key daze. Touche. But I've been spinning this album on repeat since it leaked on May 21, and I can say one thing with confidence: it's unlike anything I've ever heard.
Well, that's not entirely true. But I can honestly say that despite countless bar mitzvah dance-offs soundtracked by "One More Time" and the solid month I spent with "Digital Love" stuck in my head, I never really understood Daft Punk's appeal until now. Songs like "One More Time" always seemed a little thin, undeniably catchy but short on substance. Flashes of brilliance like the vocoder breakdown in "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" proved the band had talent, but they seemed mostly content to tread water, their hooks cycling on and on until they had overstayed their welcome. But from my first spin of "Random Access Memories," I found a different band entirely, one as experimental and dynamic as they are relentlessly catchy.
Gone are the pounding drum machines and raved-up synths. Gone, for that matter, is almost all electronic instrumentation. Daft Punk, heavily responsible for bringing electronic dance music to the American mainstream with "Homework" and "Discovery," have flipped the script entirely. Using vintage synths, live rhythm sections and analog recording technology, they've crafted a sprawling prog-disco epic that transports dance music back to the 1970s, proving to the Skrillex-loving masses that you don't need earthshaking bass drops to get people grooving.
If you saw the words "prog-disco epic" and almost ran for the hills, I understand. I was skeptical at first, too. But there's something here for everyone, whether it's the rocked-out crescendo of "Contact," the four-on-the-floor pop of "Doin' It Right" or the slinky disco of "Lose Yourself to Dance," and from top to bottom, every song is dynamic, catchy and impeccably crafted.
Daft Punk's dance floor pedigree shines through on the three tracks that form the album's molten disco core, each featuring a riff from legendary Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers. "Give Life Back to Music" kicks the album off with a red herring, its bombastic rock intro dropping into an irresistible slab of robot funk that sets high expectations for the next twelve tracks. Pharell Williams vamps like Prince over "Lose Yourself to Dance," turning a song that matches "One More Time" for cheesiness into one of the album's strongest booty-movers. Lead single "Get Lucky" is downright irresistible, riding an infectious vocal hook and a bouncing bass line straight into disco heaven. That Dartmouth's own Toast is already rocking parties with a dynamite cover of "Get Lucky" is a testament to both the song's supreme catchiness and its meteoric rise to the top of the charts.
Behind those slinky dance floor smashes lies an album of boundary-pushing, eclectic songs that succeed on the same level as their more radio-ready peers and establish "Random Access Memories" as a fantastic, interesting and cohesive album.
"The Game of Love" and "Beyond" are sexy slow-motion burners, flickering guitars and swooning synths soundtracking epic tales of auto-tuned love and loss. House legend Todd Edwards lends his voice to the buoyant blue-eyed soul of "Fragments of Time," a song that, though hidden near the back of the album, would be the best song in most bands' catalog.
"Motherboard" is downright hypnotic, with synths, strings and snare drum rolls ebbing and flowing into a watery oblivion before a ground-shaking beat pulls things back into focus, only to watch the song dissolve into fractals once more. "Touch" is an epic journey through decades of schmaltz, jaunty swing piano and soaring strings rubbing elbows as an angelic choir belts the refrain: "Hold on / If love is the answer, you're home."
If I had to point to the thesis statement of "Random Access Memories," I'd probably choose a line from sprawling dance-music history lesson "Giorgio By Moroder": "Once you free your mind about the concept of harmony, and about music being correct, you can do whatever you want." By combining a relentless flair for boundary-pushing and experimentation with their time-tested ability to probe the brain's pleasure centers, Daft Punk has created an album that is just as impressive in widescreen as it is in close-up zoom, equally at home on the dance floor and in the living room. One critic joked that, given the robot rockers' rise back into the mainstream, this album should be called "Re-Discovery." But what he forgets is that, from the 2007 "Alive" tour to the DJ Hero endorsements to the aforementioned bar mitzvahs, Daft Punk has never been all that far out of the public eye. And, if "Random Access Memories" is any indication, that's not going to change any time soon.
