Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

sometimes i think people don't actually realise they're not robots

god robots are boring

"This record raises a radical question: Does good music need to be good?" It's an intriguing thought.

Where to begin...maybe I'm wrong but the best music is usually non cerebral...

Ps thank god you can't post when other comments have been posted cos it gave me a chance to edit what I was gonna say...

robots are boning

. . . to this record! *winks*

hmmm if humans made this record and not robots that changes my opinion kinda

sorta feel ripped off

If you're not willing to believe they're really robots you're not really giving this record a chance Lex

surrender to the robots

(reminds me of the Dracula puppet theater musical at the end of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", honestly)

haha yes! also agree with the "nastiness" bit, now that you've clarified it. i'll admit that that's sorta how i felt listening to kaputt, too, at first. i know, i know, different musical eras/nostalgia, but the anxiety was similar.

i don't get the 'nastiness' thing at all, nastiness to me implies that there's some sort of subversion of the source material going on and i don't hear that at all here

nothing but love on this album

once you free your mind about a concept of harmony and of music being correct you can do whatever you want

_"This record raises a radical question: Does good music need to be good?"_

First, take this argument at face value, I think music does need to be good. For me, this is the debate "Touch" sets off: "Is this song brilliant or hideous?" I'm not sure I've listened to it enough just yet to judge...but while there are aspects of it that I admire greatly, I'm actually inclined to say "hideous." There's just something about the aesthetic of it -- Williams' old man croak, the hoary Hollywood big band middle 8, the very concept of "Touch"...ick -- that screams awful.

That said, I'm psyched that they included this song here -- and admire that at a moment when opinions have largely been rendered meaningless because there is no consequence to taking a position, DP are consciously trying to provoke these kinds of debates again in a way that you can't with a self-financed record you make at home on your laptop.

That's why I think the bigger (and much more radical) question is whether music needs to be good to sell.

By making this a BIG POP RECORD released by a BIG POP LABEL, it actually does matter whether stuff like Touch and Giorgio By Moroder is listenable and whether people like it. Because if it isn't and they don't, people won't buy it and the Columbias of the world aren't going to finance them again. And based on everything I've read so far, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that Thomas and Guy really did want to use RAM to test whether big productions with stars and sessions musicians in expensive studios with expensive promotional campaigns is the magic itself or simply a vessel for delivering it -- or if this whole idea of "magic" is just a mirage at the end of the day. And frankly, we aren't going to know until at least the end of the summer.

As a result, I appreciate what DP are trying to do as a rule here--nobody else is really trying to pull something like this off--even if I might not always admire the music itself.

Or maybe I do, I don't know.

maybe the issue is that "good" is totally subjective

because hey! people are listening to these tracks and liking them

good music needs to be good or else it isn't good, duh

joking aside, isn't this just the "guilty pleasures" debate all over again?

i dunno what it is, i don't really get why grown-ups are dismissive about whole swathes of sound or genre in 2013

lady gaga totally would have made a song like touch. same with kanye. they don't care either. and they have lots of money. sell lots of records. actually laday gaga duet with paul williams would be grand. she just cover the song.

There's just something about the aesthetic of it -- Williams' old man croak, the hoary Hollywood big band middle 8, the very concept of "Touch"...ick -- that screams awful.

"nostalgia on shuffle" as described by someone upthread (sorry, can't remember who and it's beneath the cut) does seem accurate though - "backward-looking" is just a harsher way of saying the same thing

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), maandag 20 mei 2013 18:45 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The record doesn't strike me as nostalgic at all. They didn't try to emulate sound or feelings from a past, rather they borrowed from the past to create something new and fresh. Like most artists do tbh, but I cannot see RAM as nostalgic music.

I can't RAM as anything but nostalgic music

meanwhile, Glee-pop is everywhere. who the hell even blinks hearing a song like touch? its not that weird.

Different strokes then etc

xp

people are always trotting out old decrepit people like tom jones and marianne faithful.

this album seems very conceptually "french" and i think some of that stuff doesn't translate very well

Daft Punk is our Joel's favourite group and he hasn't said "why are they making this old timey music i can't get my head around it" yet

what is it about this sort of theatrical showmanship in music that causes it to come off as less than sincere to a certain subset of music listeners that seem to be well-represented on this site?

my first reaction is "well because OBVIOUSLY" but then I realize I can't justify it - really interesting question. maybe because I was weaned on self-annihilating early 90s stuff.

Joel OTM

xp

Sometimes it's nice not to think too much...(wish I could do it more often)

This album revels in nostalgic themes for sure, championing certain aspects of humanity that have allegedly been obscured by the information age, but musically it doesn't strike me as a step backwards in time or whatever. Or maybe it does take a few steps back, but it also takes several steps forward. It is da saawnd of da fyootcha.

is it good rockism or bad rockism though. you're ilm you tell me.

By making this a BIG POP RECORD released by a BIG POP LABEL, it actually does matter whether stuff like Touch and Giorgio By Moroder is listenable and whether people like it. Because if it isn't and they don't, people won't buy it and the Columbias of the world aren't going to finance them again. And based on everything I've read so far, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that Thomas and Guy really did want to use RAM to test whether big productions with stars and sessions musicians in expensive studios with expensive promotional campaigns is the magic itself or simply a vessel for delivering it

Well, hold on here though -- as has been noted already and I'll repeat, Daft Punk funded all this themselves; they only signed to Columbia formally at the start of the year. In that Columbia was doubtless involved/funded the campaign, sure, but the recording effort itself?

That's a good point.

Tho I'm not sure if it fundamentally dilutes the overall thrust of what I was saying...

any chance for a new 'Part 2' thread when we get to 5K posts?

I now can't hear 'Contact' without imagining some mainstream British MC doing their obligatory triumphant origin story verses over the top. It's just got that kind of feel to it.

This seems like a traditional over the top statement pop album with big hits and big misses. As long as the hits are there then people will forgive/ignore strange tracks and slow interludes, and so will the labels.

Also I've only just noticed quite how many vocoders there are clambering over the top of one another on 'Lose Yourself To Dance'.

grantland piece on this album kinda nails it

couldn't get past the bit where he namechecked Skrillex, it's like looking into an alien world for me

it has been fun rereading this narrative in every single daft punk feature: alive 2007 -> skrillex -> edm -> ram is reactionary

"Lose Yourself to Dance" is slow because it's sexy. I mean which makes you wanna fuck, gabber or Luther?

(and if you answer that wrong I'm so not having sex with you)

I mean which makes you wanna fuck, gabber or Luther?

yes

When it comes to stadium EDM, Daft Punk is Led Zeppelin. Only Random Access Memories isn't Physical Graffiti; it's closer to Aja.

lots of dumb sentences on the internet about daft punk rn, has it always been this way

yes

― AMERICA IS ABOUT RESSLING (DJP), Monday, May 20, 2013 1:04 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pvmic

Read that as 'panic'

(and if you answer that wrong I'm so not having sex with you)

― The Reverend, Monday, May 20, 2013 4:03 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't respond to threats.

Agreed that the Grantland review of this is really good (not the cringeworthy minute-by-minute breakdown convo).

"Lose Yourself to Dance" is slow because it's sexy. I mean which makes you wanna fuck, gabber or Luther?

― The Reverend, Monday, May 20, 2013

I'm so not having sex with a guy who thinks Pharrell yelping like Adam Levine is sexy