Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

xp
Yes. The Aeroplane singles/remixes practically defined architectural, not too saccarrine nu-disco in 2009-10, so the reviewers and audience had little interest in a proggy record.

From the reviews it seems like the RAM experience is more mixed, maybe like some Donna Summer sidelong suite, ambitious, maybe not so functional.

this album will be better than human after all but worse than discovery

that is a category that 99% of records belong to tho

Of the reviews I've read so far, this one seemed the most mixed to negative:
http://thequietus.com/articles/12144-daft-punk-random-access-memories-track-by-track-preview

I don't get the angle of some of these reviews. So it's not "the future of electronic music". Why would anyone expect it to be?

prob b/c the promo vids said it was the future of electronic music

Kind of makes me worried that Fact says Get Lucky is the most chart friendly track in here. I was expecting at least two more chart hits in this one.

Like, at this point I'd rather have Daft Punk pretending to save pop music instead of electronic music.

this thread is going to be really entertaining to re-read in a couple months

Would Discovery have sounded like the future in 2001 though? If it does now it's because other records borrowed its tricks. This one *might* but we can hardly know that on zeroth listen.

If it does, my guess is it'll be because of the loudness thing - Get Lucky certainly sounds weird on my phone speaker, which I think is it trying to compensate for the lack of brickwalling.

I don't think a record made w/ nile rogers and pharrell and julian casablancas is gonna sound like the future, that is just my guess

it still might sound good tho

xp Who said it was the future of electronic music? I haven't seen all the videos. Seems like a weird claim to make, and not one they've made themselves. I'm already blaming Pharrell.

I can understand why they're having these high-security playbacks but this isn't really a one-listen album, which is why all these track-by-tracks are basically "oh, this isn't what I expected".

I wouldn't trust either FACT or The Quietus on this tbh, both have a pretty conflicted relationship with pop, especially at its most brightly coloured.

it doesn't sound like it's particularly poppy though

Is Chilly Gonzales named for the Valencia/Argentina player, in a Joy Orbison/Kurt Vile tribute style? That only occurred to me today.

Already a bit fed-up with all the one-listen reviews out there. From a music-journalism view it's interesting to ask the question: why? For nearly every review I read begins with "but remember kids, this is only after one listen!". From a business point of view I totally see how it adds to the hype, but it doesn't really add anything journalistically if they all start out with that disclaimer.

I wonder if they will all write proper reviews a week after it's released? And how much that will be different from these first impressions?

(btw. I am astounded by how many lyrics the Q writer got down in that one listening session though, especially since you are listening with a bunch of people, to vocoder lyrics mostly... It's the only review, when reading, of which I though 'this guy snuck in a recorder!')

Q meaning Quietus, not 'Q'

did this get posted here yet

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/swarm/rational-conversation-philip-sherburne-muses-return-basement-jaxx-and-daft-punk/

Is Chilly Gonzales named for the Valencia/Argentina player, in a Joy Orbison/Kurt Vile tribute style? That only occurred to me today.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, May 1, 2013 2:36 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk, but Kurt Vile is his given name

Already a bit fed-up with all the one-listen reviews out there. From a music-journalism view it's interesting to ask the question: why? For nearly every review I read begins with "but remember kids, this is only after one listen!". From a business point of view I totally see how it adds to the hype, but it doesn't really add anything journalistically if they all start out with that disclaimer.

lol i 100% agree with you that one-listen reviews are a pox on "music" "journalism" but this ship has long, long sailed (and no, no one ever revisits the album later, it's alllllll about being first and getting those clicks)

(btw. I am astounded by how many lyrics the Q writer got down in that one listening session though, especially since you are listening with a bunch of people, to vocoder lyrics mostly... It's the only review, when reading, of which I though 'this guy snuck in a recorder!')

when i've had to do it i've often got a surprising amount of lyrics down, it's not that hard...

Lex, I know it is all about "being first", which is why I hate it so much. "Hey, how do I know if it's a good album or not, I only got one listen, BUT YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST"

Wish music journalists would take a stand and just not go. But that will never happen. Same with that plane trip of, who was it, Rihanna?

Music journalism caught in the belly of the horrible machine etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=GGJy822geAg
SO early 2000's

http://globalgrind.com/style/daft-punk-may-issue-obsession-magazine-photos

http://i.imgur.com/i4G5Uq6.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/dwFT5oA.jpg

"Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo both got to talk about their time recording Random Access Memories, and it sounds like it was a long tedious process."

If you were a member of Daft Punk, wouldn't you be sending someone else to wear the robot helmet in photo shoots at this point? I definitely would.

they trade with MF Doom on alternate Wednesdays

Worst case of playbackitis I can remember was Kid A. There was no warning of what it would sound like so many of the initial UK magazine reviews were lukewarm and full of "where have the guitars gone?" bafflement and its masterpiece rep only came a little later when people (a) knew what to expect and (b) could live with it. I'm not saying this will do what Kid A did but I don't think we'll say any really insightful writing about it for a while.

I tried to go to a playback one afternoon, of a Blur album I think it was, at one of Glasgow's biggest clubs. Only when I got there there was no sign of any playback, the back door was lying open and there appeared to be nobody in the whole building. I wandered about for a bit and left, should probably have drunk the bar dry now I think about it.

I was just thinking that all these track-by-track previews remind me of the pre-Napster age. Kid A was one of the last albums I remember getting that treatment, and coincidentally the first I can remember to leak ahead of its release date. First big record, certainly.

According to this:
http://www.journaldequebec.com/2013/04/30/daft-punk-se-reinvente

The next Daft Punk's radio singles are going to be "Lose Yourself to Dance" and will be followed later by "Instant Crush".

http://i.imgur.com/4rj5Tgw.gif

I'd love if this were the actual cover:

http://i.imgur.com/RXUY0JH.jpg

lol at the knuckleheaded tween thinking the muppet movie is a disney soundtrack

It is now

speaking of Radiohead and advance playback, KID A was given 5 stars and a rave from Q same as this fella.

Is Chilly Gonzales named for the Valencia/Argentina player, in a Joy Orbison/Kurt Vile tribute style? That only occurred to me today.

iirc the first day he moved to Berlin someone shouted “Chilly Gonzales!” at him in the street and he took it as an omen. In my head it was shouted in the cadence of that distorted sample that recurs on the first solo album.

If you were a member of Daft Punk, wouldn't you be sending someone else to wear the robot helmet in photo shoots at this point? I definitely would.

They were definitely doing this by seven years ago, there were magazine interviews conducted with Guy-Man and Thomas while they watched the photographs for the piece being taken across the street.

I was just thinking that all these track-by-track previews remind me of the pre-Napster age. Kid A was one of the last albums I remember getting that treatment, and coincidentally the first I can remember to leak ahead of its release date. First big record, certainly.

In wider cultural memory, yeah, but I remember both Oasis's Standing on the Shoulders of Giants and the Cure's Bloodflowers both leaking some months earlier. IIRC there was even an NME report or two about how 'some Brazilian site' had the Oasis tracks and there being all sorts of debate and tsking, coming on the heels of Napster/Metallica and all.

lol Ned you burned me a copy of bloodflowers when it leaked

Ryan P4k's notes: http://ryanpitchfork.tumblr.com/post/49415140639/handwritten-notes-from-my-first-listen-to-daft

xpost -- memories!

People seem to be pretty much into the panda bear track.

So have any of you heard it? I thought we had some influential people posting in here, suddenly we're all unemployed or what?

I've heard of it.

Only got myself to blame really, but my six year old has been caught up in the excitement and has asked me to make him a DP helmet that he can wear to a street-dance display that he's doing. Not sure how I'm going to get papier-maché that shiny but uh ok boss.

xp Nope, Kid A got 3/5 from Q and Select and a very lukewarm 7/10 from NME.

I've heard RAM but couldn't say so earlier because of the embargo.

Oh, and Melody Maker gave Kid A 1.5/5. I can't think of a consensus classic from the last decade that had worse reviews.

7/10 for Kid A seems about right.

NOT CONSENSUS CLASSIC -_-

melody maker were correct (for once)

of course, every other radiohead album should have probably received worse ratings