Daft Punk Is Done And Everything Is Terrible
A brief retrospective on their career.
Early this morning, February 22nd, Daft Punk called it quits. Daft Punk, the legendary French electronic music duo, responsible for some of the most enjoyable, danceable house music feels like a true loss. From soundtracking a TRON film to creating one of the most legendary live tours of all time in ALIVE 2007, it was hard not to love this group.
And people did! James Murphy in LCD Soundsystem proudly stating “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House.” It’s unable to even quantify the influence they had on the industry. They even helped Kanye produce tracks off Yeezus and linked up Pharrell and The Weeknd. Appealing to the indie but also making a splash in the pop music scene? That’s a very strong pedigree they have.
I shouldn’t even have to mention that Daft Punk is Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter dressed up as robotic alter egos. They are up there with Gorillaz in creating such an interesting mythos around their appearance, their music acting a black box that takes in multiple influences and outputs genius.
Starting with Homework in 1997, Daft Punk was a huge part of the European dance music scene, creating tracks like “Da Funk,” “Burnin’,” and of course “Around The World” that still survive of some of the best electronic music to be put to disk. It takes in the material they had been creating in the early part of the nineties, and puts it out on what already seems like a greatest hits LP.
The best music on Homework sounds built for a French club, and highlights their early influences. This is house music at its’ most accomplished, there is no doubt about that.
But in 2001, Daft Punk truly knocked it out of the park with Discovery. A soundtrack to their own film (Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem), the songs tell their own story. There’s the obvious hits that I won’t dwell on like “One More Time,” “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” and “Digital Love,” which are all brilliant in their own right. Moving from European dance music, Daft Punk became more inspired by garage music and R&B, creating less an electronic album and more a pop music statement.
Once again, it’s hard to not imagine these tracks playing at a club, especially with Romanthony’s vocals on “One More Time,” but the album really succeeds as an experience as well. It’s hard to place just how listening to Discovery feels, but it’s something like just being told the best news of your life and walking around with the biggest smile on your face. There’s a lot of glam in this album, huge funk influences, even a huge guitar solo in “Aerodynamic.” You are doing your brain a disservice by not listening to this album on repeat.
Discovery is without a doubt their best album. The climax of the record is “Something About Us,” a deeply emotional track with pitched vocals by Thomas Bangalter himself. So much emotion in few words here, even Drake would tell this guy to take it easy.
The amount of influences on display in Discovery is really amazing. This is just music at its’ most joyous, most triumphant. If I could dance properly I would, to every single beat.
And there’s Human After All, which while not on the level of their other releases, is still part of their story as a group. Unfortunately I do not have a lot to say about this release. Recorded in a very short amount of time, it contains a lot of repetitive pieces, but is still worth a dive for fans.
“Random Access Memories” is likely their most accessible release. You’ve likely heard of it from all the Grammy buzz and the fact that “Get Lucky” with Pharrell dominated the airwaves for an entire summer. Here, Daft Punk took in all their influence and output an entire rainbow of strange, bold, and above all catchy pop music. Sure, Daft Punk is still their with the strictly electronic tracks like “Beyond” or “Contact” that stand up there with their best, but the beauty here is in the collaborations.
The best is easily “Instant Crush” with Julian Casablancas of The Strokes fame. I don’t think any Strokes fan (myself) would say Julian is one of the best singers, but here he’s pulling off a genuine stunner. Overlaid with autotune, he sings about lost love, at one point stopping because he can’t go on singing about it.
With tracks like “Touch” and “Doin’ It Right,” Daft Punk proved that they can let collaborators in on the mystery and still output astounding music. The songs here are maximal, more in widescreen than the snappy European dance music of the past, but a stylistic change this late in their career is more than deserved. They had conquered pop music once on Discovery, and set out to do it again on this album.
Whereas Discovery is more about telling a conceptual story about childhood and the memories attached, Random Access Memories seems in awe of the world and of its’ musical history.
In the in between of all these albums are of course their collections, remixes and ALIVE 2007. It is a follow up to their ALIVE 1997 release, a 45 minute cut from their tour. ALIVE 2007 may be the best live album of all time. It again functions like a greatest hits of their career to that point. There are nearly 90 minutes here of just frenetic, stunning, danceable music. So many live albums seem drowned out by crowd noise and retreading the same songs. ALIVE 2007 skirts expectations by catching the duo at the crux of their power.
Here they mash up songs and perfectly come across as legitimate legends. If there’s one regret in my life, it’s that I didn’t get to see the performance of these tracks.
The TRON: Legacy soundtrack is one of my favorite movie soundtracks in general. It’s not surprising that Kid Cudi tried to rap over the “Son of Flynn” instrumental. How a movie as mediocre as that gets a score that brilliant is beyond me, but for soundtrack fans, there is little to fault here.
Daft Punk was essentially my introduction to the wider world of electronic music. They are up their with Authecre and LCD Soundsystem, if you ask me. So much quality music spanning multiple decades, it’s hard to ask for more from a band from that. Though I will always want more of their music, at least their statements will stand the test of time.
With the image of the sun setting on their closing video “Epilogue,” their masterful track “Touch” playing in the background, it’s hard not to feel emotional. Though what a note to close on, still at the height of their powers and such an important influence on countless musicians.
