Oh boy, here's a big one. It's funny writing this review, because I was completely oblivious to the anticipation surrounding Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and picked it up with a lot of hesitation.
I have said this before (and love repeating it), but punk rock is mostly my forte so I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying this album. So, looking at Random Access Memories, what do we have?
I can't help but think of the Spits when I think of Daft Punk. Get it? They pretend to be robots and so modulate and auto-tune their voices but, as anyone can guess, they are real people. And while the Spits are robot garage punk, Daft Punk are robot dance music. That's the shtick here, and the font on RAM looking strikingly similar to Michael Jackson's Thriller hints at a disco/club vibe. So, one can tell a lot by the cover alone. But what about the album itself?
First, let's address the elephant in the room, which is that the song order on RAM hurts the pacing tremendously. RAM is loaded with catchy, upbeat songs which are broken up by slower ballads which honestly aren't that noteworthy. The album is over seventy-four minutes long, which is almost a death sentence in itself, so why the band didn't choose to group the songs more accordingly (by building to the dancier songs or vice versa, instead of placing the songs in the order of fast-slow-fast-slow), I'll never know. Still, in spite of this unfortunate choice, RAM has plenty of excellent songs to keep you interested like "Give Life Back to Music," "Giorgio By Moroder," "Lose Yourself to Dance" and the obligatory song of the summer, "Get Lucky." In short, I'm kind of surprised here. Surprised, at what an enjoyable album we have here, and surprised that this is one of those albums I'm recommending people check out this year.
The vinyl itself is quite a very beautiful and appropriately appointed package. You know, you can't half-ass an album as glammy as this, right? Coming in at a little higher than $30 (depending on where you buy it), you get a double 180 gram vinyl, a gatefold cover and a cool booklet with art and lyrics (!); a package as sleek and grandiose as the music itself.
Artist:
www.daftpunk.com/
www.facebook.com/pages/Daft-Punk-OFFICIAL/
www.twitter.com/TheRealDaftPunk
Album:
Random Access Memories is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
