In respect to song length, the majority of songs do not outstay their welcome but show patience in building a groove and moving through the motions. Yet criticisms of the albums length are not entirely fair, with song length mattering far more in an age in which albums are only rarely consumed as a whole. Others such as Motherboard sound too close to filler ambiance which their TRON: Legacy soundtrack was loaded up on. Vocals drenched in vocoder move over a funky R&B bass-line at a pace which shows no rush to make its point when the ride is what matters. The deft hand of Daft Punk shows up in songs like Beyond. In a few years time when talk of the albums lead-up is confined to Wikipedia, the precisely constructed sounds of Random Access Memories appear set to age favourably. Just like with Radiohead’s In Rainbows, at some point the enormity of the album’s release will fade from view. Elsewhere in the album, familiar trappings of Daft Punk are present, the likes of Within harking back to past songs such as Emotion and Make Love. The most distinguishing aspect of the album is that it sounds like Daft Punk, songs like Give Life Back to Music sound as if they are a lost b-side from the days of Discovery and Homework. While this may ebb to the flow of electronic artists such as Skrillex and Calvin Harris there is little to distance Random Access Memories in style from Daft Punk’s French contemporaries like Sebastien Tellier, Air, Justice, or anything released on labels like Guy-Manuel’s own Crydamoure. Much has been made of Daft Punk’s usage of more traditional instruments. In its construction there is little that is groundbreaking in Random Access Memories. There is nothing outside Get Lucky that appears ready to storm the charts as Discovery did. Within this context, much of the album does little to justify the momentum and attention created by its marketing. An album packed with potential chart-topping hits that proved as infectious as past singles like One More Time and Around the World. What many a critic seemed geared up for was Get Lucky stretched out over 13 tracks. Yet it seems regardless of the music’s failings in this context, Random Access Memories stands as an album with the fingerprints of Thomas and Guy-Manuel all over it.Īlbum collaborator Thomas Edwards puts forth that “they’re fulfilling their vision on all levels, you know all aesthetics.” In the release of Random Access Memories a variety of media avenues were utilised, with snippets of Get Lucky airing during commercial breaks of Saturday Night Live Pharell and Nile Rodgers appearing in a teaser at Coachella and the small town of Wee Waa, Australia hosting the world premiere of the album. As described by Grantland’s Steven Hyden “the strategy for selling Memories has been written about nearly as much as the album at this point.” The argument of whether the album should be rated in the context of the wider marketing and lead up to its release date is somewhat of a moot point, as every man and his dog has already done so. The lead up to Random Access Memories has further distanced the conversation away from the men behind the masks, and towards a conversation from which the music stands little chance of being talked about in isolation. Like many costumed musical acts, the persona put forward often draws away from the reality Daft Punk consists of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Review Summary: Away from the conversation about the albums promotion, Random Access Memories is loaded with nostalgia and plenty for Daft Punk fans to enjoy.
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