Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

the album's been out for a whole day, totally time to get the "daft punk: are they popular?" debate going again

why not? I'm home from work, up all night to get some

dan you understand 'canonized' and 'popular' don't mean the same thing right? for example 'nothing's gonna stop us now' by starship was a #1 hit in the us and the uk and was even nominated for a grammy but, imo at least, is pretty far from canonized.

just you wait until DF hire Marty Balin for the next album

can't wait for vocoderized 'i had a taste of the real world when i went down on you girl'

You understand that there are multiple sources for a "canon" and that one of them is "stodgy industry types who hand out awards like Oscars and Grammys" and that pretty much everything about this album except for the end of "Contact" is directly in that demographic's wheelhouse, right?

Basically if this doesn't win Best Dance Recording or Best Dance Album, I will be shocked.

think i'm gonna listen to red octopus and the first paul williams album the rest of the afternoon, maybe throw streisand's lazy afternoon (her rupert holmes album btw) into the mix see what happens

not that anyone cares about grammies but if kish kash and alive 2007 already won I would imagine this has a good chance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Dance/Electronica_Album

holy christ am i supposed to investigate paul williams solo albums now?

will it never stop?

xxxpost

that jazzy version of get lucky is terrible but i like the idea in theory... kind of want herbie hancock to do a covers album or something

the album's been out for a whole day, totally time to get the "daft punk: are they popular?" debate going again

reminds me that I lolled at this

Finally hearing it for the first time...holy shit @ 'Give Life Back to Music' - perfection.

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 9:57 AM (11 hours ago)

which was posted around fourteen hours after the thing was first unveiled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKUaZgcZp-0

unless it flops (and i'm not even sure what would qualify as a 'flop' here, this things guaranteed to be their best selling album many times over already) you're probably right about that grammy.

except for the end of "Contact"

yeah cos it's noisy it can't be canonical

so saith grammy, so say we all

the grammy awards 'canon' also includes 4 foo fighters albums from the last decade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Rock_Album

i love the foo fighters

i do think i wouldn't mind living in a world where the velvet underground weren't canonized but anne murray was, for a little while at least

tbf to the grammys the foo fighters are likely to get in the rrhof before anyone on this album

wow i never thought this thread would become a clusterfuck

you were right?

This thread was a clusterfuck even before the album came out.

No need for the circular firing squad...

My point in the comment above was that Daft Punk seems to have picked up a lot of new bands since the pyramid tour and they are getting a really big roll out for this album. It's shaping up to be their biggest hit, from what I can tell. So what I'm trying to figure out is, has there been any other record pushed this aggressively to the "kids" in the last 20-30 years that featured prominent Chic/Steely Dan/Herbie Hancock/Return To Forever flavors?

'Touch' is the one track I wanna keep going back to...Paul Williams vocal is one of the most sincere I've heard in ages...forgot what a great vocalist he is...seriously can't believe anybody could hate on this album...think of it as Phoenix's lost third album produced by DP...

― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 2:15 PM (37 minutes ago)

otm. i didn't know what to make of "touch" the first time through. i recoiled from the "cheezy" paul williams-ness, but was fascinated all the way through. on the second pass, i dug it, but felt a bit guilty. since then, it's been unashamedly glorious.

not a phoenix fan tho

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

yeah yeah, and "ornament is crime"

feh

music should be considered on a scale with 'giving the people what they want' at one end and 'doing what makes them happy' at the other

because i think i know where this album belongs

No I don't like what Phoenix have become but the 1st album does sound like a blueprint for this...and in IMO you can never be too sincere...

Williams' bit reminds me of Elton John's performance on Kate Bush's "Snowed In at Wheeler Street" -- while his devotion was unquestioned, it was a chore listening to him sing a song quite beyond his shrunken range.

Yes that it is iiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttt. That's what it reminds me of sonically. Damn yo, "otm" doesn't cover the otm-ness of it.

Whoa.

Wheeler Street is great, you're crazy

My problem with citing sincerity as a virtue is it gets into intentions; we're judging cause as we would effects.

Sonically, I don't find it a chore to listen to tbh

But so spot on

xxxp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_RoBGpNGfs
BACKLASH

Williams' bit reminds me of Elton John's performance on Kate Bush's "Snowed In at Wheeler Street" -- while his devotion was unquestioned, it was a chore listening to him sing a song quite beyond his shrunken range.

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 5:04 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

see also elvis costello after 1985--always writing songs out of his vocal range.

i dunno so far "touch" just seems like this unholy amalgam

this isn't a bad thing necessarily but i can see this album giving folks like robert christgau serious hives

Daft Punk guys are pretty much my age, which makes me think they're trolling all the young fans who had dads playing Return to Forever at home and moms listening to smooth jazz funk while driving carpools to soccer games.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:34 PM Bookmark

Ha no, I love all that shit. But as others have said it's pretty rehabilitated and most Daft Punk fans probably didn't not have all the 70s fusion records on the family turntable that we did. I totally understand why some people hate this album but it's completely in my wheelhouse.

this is really of a piece w/ electronic music of the past whatever many years, just building this ever-expanding canon that runs counter to whatever passes as an "official" critical canon (e.g. classic rock stations/RR hall of fame/etc.) with its token jazz/disco/R&B artists. stereolab had tons of energy for this kind of thing, and now it's basically foundational to a huge swath of contemporary electronic music. i do think that daft punk might take kind of counter-canon a bit more "above ground," but it's not like it hasn't been present in the charts, it's just that few acts shout out their influences (or wear them on their sleeve) as much as this band.

i can see this album giving folks like robert christgau serious hives

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 3:11 PM (5 minutes ago)

success!

I like Return to Forever! Shakatak, not so much. Chic and Moroder, yes! Paul Williams, not so much. Panda Bear is OK. Casablancas, not so much. I really, really hear what Nile brings to this, when he's enlisted. The other guests? Not so much. After listening at the record store I went across the street to the hardware store, where they were playing Van Halen's "Why Can't This Be Love?" And I thought, hmm, they probably could have fit Sammy Hagar on this thing, somewhere. And then they played Matthew Wilder's "Break My Stride" and I thought, huh, they probably could have fit Matthew Wilder on here, too. Because why not? I love the totally non-hipness of the hippest band in the world. It's anti-hip. But it's also a chore to listen to, and doesn't (to my ears) expand on its homage-de-fromage as well as I expected it to do.

Someone upthread brought up the last Destroyer album, and while I think they only share a few bits of DNA, I do think a record like "Kaputt" did more with what it was referencing than this one does, which I find disappointing. It kind of reminds me of when an awesome non-American director is brought to Hollywood, then proceeds to churn out the same disappointing dreck they once existed as an alternative to. This album is better than dreck, but it is disappointing, the sheer number of tracks that seem underdeveloped, over-long or that I just can't imagine ever listening to out of the context of listening to the entire album, which I also can't imagine doing.

I wonder if any album this smooth, this slick, this well-produced and seemingly well intentioned, has been this (apparently) divisive? Have there been any high profile attack reviews, or is everyone playing nice/playing along?

xgau hated discovery also (as well as 'i feel love') so it would hardly be a surprise if xgau hates it

xpost Yeah I agree with that comparison but EJ and EC can't oscillate their vocals so they end up sounding really linear( just singing at full power ALL the time) and over the top where as a really great vocalist (and I'm thinking of Todd Rundgren and Paul Williams on 'Touch') get the balance right and make it sound really beautifully bittersweet...

will need to slice off the first 2 min of 'giorgio by moroder'

i don't want to hear an old bloke talking for ages every time i play this album

Xgau liked the new Knife!

Ps why wasn't Todd Rundgren rather than Todd Edwards on this...

Discovery [Virgin, 2001]
These guys are so French I want to force-feed them and cut out their livers. Young moderns who've made the Detroit-Berlin adjustment may find their squelchy synth sounds humanistic; young moderns whose asses sport parallel ports may dance till they crash. But Yank fun is much less spirituel, so that God bless America, "One More Time" is merely an annoying novelty stateside. The way our butts plug in, there are better beats on the damn Jadakiss CD. C+

Romantic Warrior [Columbia, 1976]
Right on schedule, two or three years behind John McLaughlin, Chick Corea tries to eat the fusion cyclotron. Where McLaughlin fell for a few silly orchestral trappings, Corea essays pompous, ersatz-classical compositions--while continuing to display Al DiMeola, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White in all their dazzling vacuity. Jazz-rock's answer to Emerson, Lake & Palmer--the worst of both worlds. D+

Giorgio Moroder: As a solo artist he was the Ross Bagdasarian of his time, but without Alvin Chipmunk who could care?

Xgau liked the new Knife!

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, May 14, 2013 3:25 PM (6 seconds ago)

yeah, but that's the polar opposite of RAM

Giorgio Moroder: As a solo artist he was the Ross Bagdasarian of his time, but without Alvin Chipmunk who could care?

this is literally the dumbest thing anyone has ever said

Discovery review otoh is primo Xgau (and I don't even really like Xgau but it is sort of a wonder to behold when all his succinct little witticisms come together)