Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

It's made the dad-rock canon

The touch-points for this album are pretty much dad-rock across the board, tbf. Session dudes, '80s disco, smooth jazz. And Daft Punk dudes are pushing 40. Dad-dance?

put that way, no wonder Lex hates it

xp
'lose your dad to dance'

More like "lose your dance to Dad".

Electronic Dad Music

Dad Punk

After hearing what they did on the three songs they produced on Kanye's album, I'm even madder at RAM

?

The first three songs on Yeezus are all furious dub-tinged menace, possibly the furthest away you can get from what they're doing on RAM without adding in metal guitars, and way more in line with the type of music I was hoping RAM would be.

You were just hoping, or somehow thought they'd given an indication it would be? As soon as I heard "Nile Rodgers" and "Giorgio Moroder" I took a guess at what it was going to be (which excited me) and what I imagined (and hoped for) was pretty close to what was. But isn't it a good thing they have the versatility to do both?

no

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirw3C7MG9I

So here's an acoustic cover for instant crush. Hearing it like this makes easier to imagine it as a strokes song. Would be wicked to have julian or the strokes making a cover as a bside to the upcoming single for comparison.

I may have already mentioned this earlier in the thread but honestly Instant Crush would fit perfectly on the new Strokes album. To me it sounds much more like a Strokes song than a Daft Punk one, it's just it sounds like they do now on an album not many people have heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMUbRgRNC8

I can't speak to the sound, but structurally Instant Crush is obviously a Strokes song. Nobody else writes like that, cramming far too much lyric into every line while moving about very little melodically.

the original sounds much more like a strokes song that that busker cover

Kind of enjoying the Daftside remixes, some good moments on it. The Da Funk/Musique remix of Instant Crush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6leKFatGcdM

"Instant crush" is good but somehow it might be the track I listen to the least on the album (with "contact").
maybe because it really feels much more like a strokes track (and I like the strokes) than a daft punk track and it doesn't really fit on the album.

it's amazing how "lose yourself to dance" manages to take all the energy out of even a soul train video

"lose yourself to dance" is quite bizarre because the funky riff and groove are great yet, it's true that the song is not really made to dance to.
but the thing I love about it is the robots choir that goes up and down and goes crazy.
very baroque.

or maybe some dirty robot dancing.

The Daftside take on "Lose Yourself to Dance" is jawdroppingly great.

https://soundcloud.com/daftside-2/11-daftside-lose-yourself-to

after sitting with this album for awhile I don't think it's really all that good. the parts that aren't insanely repetitious are wandering and sort of ill-conceived

it *sounds* really great, but everything else about it is undercooked.

Armond is getting down getting funky to this somewhere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6PEboTpcfI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6PEboTpcfI

xp argh :)

it annoyed me a little bit at first but I think the thing about the repetitive/longish aspect of many of these songs is that they are pop/disco/prog songs composed by electro/techno guys.
the idea of repetitiveness is at the core of their songwriting process.
"Da funk" or "around the world" were very repetitive too !

so for instance "lose yourself" could have been shorter in a pure "pop" conception.
but if you consider it as an electro track in structure, it's not really an issue anymore.

after sitting with this album for awhile I don't think it's really all that good. the parts that aren't insanely repetitious are wandering and sort of ill-conceived

― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, June 24, 2013 11:46 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it *sounds* really great, but everything else about it is undercooked.

― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, June 24, 2013 11:46 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel exactly this way, but there's no purpose to me repeating it except to troll the thread. Which I am doing.

I don't have a problem with repetition per se - I like a lot of repetitive music - but this is the lazy, boring kind of repetitive

yeah it's like they just didn't know how to make the songs go somewhere

whereas in past daft punk the repetition and minimailist variation is the strength

The Moroder track is dumb, nothing he says is interesting. "FREE YOUR MIND FROM MUSICAL THEORY PRECONCEPTIONS" and then the same simple, boring chord progression keeps going.

Game of Love is the standout truly awful track imo, and Within is awful in a more forgettable way. But Touch is also terrible in a particular, bathetic way, like an outtake from a little-performed Sondheim musical.

I still love Give Life Back to Music, and there are a few other pretty good tracks.

Beginning of Beyond is like "WELCOME TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS THEME PARK!"

new Soundcloud doesn't let you spoof download links from page source anymore, let me know if Daftside gets rar'd

yeah Moroder track is just inexplicably poorly constructed...? Touch too, in its way, altho I get what they were going for there at least (and I'm a huge PW fan). but the moroder thing is like the definition of filler.

Yeah only Omar Hakim's drumming saves that one

(Moroder I mean)

Guys, this is quite obviously the the LEAST repetitive, most musically diverse album to date from a band where repetition is one of their main features. "Omar Hakim's drumming saves that one". Exactly - maybe the drumming and the guitars etc in the last three mins are the whole point, no? I get that you dislike or are disappointed or something but your complaints come across are pretty LOL.

these guys might have a grasp of how repetition works in electro/techno/whatever you want to call it, but I don't think they know how to effectively employ it in other contexts. like, say disco-prog.

what makes something that is repetitious boring or not? is it the length of the repeated part? is it the repeated part's quality? how similar does a part need to be to the previous part for it to be labeled 'a repeat'? can you please isolate a section of a song that you think is boring because it's repetitious? do daft punk really want to employ repetition? because fact remains that the taxes they would levy on disco-prog would ultimately hurt repetition, no?

okay, take Give Life Back to Music, which has essentially two parts: a turnaround/breakdown and a simple four-chord verse. The only melody to speak of is the vocoder line, which pops up and gets repeated ad nauseum with no variation when it does. This is all there is to the song, yet it goes on for 4 1/2 minutes, waiting for something else to happen. It's structured like a pop song, but contains none of pop's dynamics, no narrative, no building of tension followed by release, the instrumental elements don't build on each other. After the fourth or fifth time I've heard the vocoder refrain, I'm sick of it.

and like all the individual elements are pleasant enough, the guitars sound great, the drums sound great, the bass is rubbery, the vocoder melody is serviceable, but all of the parts just kind of lay there.

AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD

this is the first daft punk album I've ever listened to btw, so appealing to "older, better" stuff basically means nothing to me thx for playing

Then maybe Daft Punk generally aren't for you. I mean, if this is how you feel about 'Give Life Back To Music', then listening to the full version of 'Around The World' is severely going to test your patience.

I like prog disco and moroder and paul williams and whatnot so I thought hey maybe this one WAS for me but what do I know

these guys might have a grasp of how repetition works in electro/techno/whatever you want to call it, but I don't think they know how to effectively employ it in other contexts. like, say disco-prog.

― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier)

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

otm