Ride Back in Time: Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” Era
April 9, 2020: Quarantine is a perfect moment to take a short ride back in time to revisit a Grammy-award winning album from 2013-2014: Daft Punk’s Random Access memories. — WriterMild
Generating quite a buzz during its time of release, Daft Punk’s fourth studio album “RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES” has definitely stood the test of time. The French electronic/house music duo – Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter – made history for themselves with this album, which differed substantially from their previous projects like “Human After All” and their “Tron: Legacy” soundtracks. This album seemed to be much more relatable and radio-friendly compared to their usual heavily robotic and EDM sounds. Yet, their signature remained powerful. And, with just the right balance of all the elements, “RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES” won five Grammy awards in 2014, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for one of its singles, “Get Lucky” featuring singer-producer Pharrell Williams and guitarist Nile Rogers.
The first track “Give Life Back to Music” is in itself a statement, as the title suggests. The vocoded vocals and disco-funky guitar strumming set the mood and tone for the rest of the album. Following the big sounds of the first track, Daft Punk calms the hype down with “The Game of Love” in which an android-like vocal sings about their significant other breaking their heart. Next up seems to be the thesis and vision for the concept of this whole album. “Giorgio by Moroder,” which is 9-minute long, features a monologue by a famous Italian producer Giorgio Moroder who is known for pioneering and experimenting with EDM; the track shows Daft Punk’s intention to enjoy music for what it is as well as direction for the production of this project. With Giorgio telling such a rich story, we get into the more sophisticated part of the album as “Within” poses an existential wondering “Many rooms to explore but the doors look the same / I am lost I can’t even remember my name.” The beautiful piano accompanies the simple yet enthralling lyrics about one’s identity. The sentimentality continues with “Instant Crush,” featuring Julian Casablancas reminiscing about a past/impossible love. It is unclear who the singer is talking to in several parts of the lyrics, but that is one of the things that make the track so captivating; it could be about a love-triangle, or a bad idealization of a love interest, or something completely different that listeners connect to.
Next up, the album introduces Pharrell Williams for the first time on “Lose Yourself to Dance.” Contrasting with the title, the song is rather laid back and conveys a straightforward message: just take a break from your busy life and dance. Another Williams soon follows in another longer track on this project, “Touch” starts off in a very atmospheric and haunting way before Paul Williams comes in with his minimally processed vocals; the song wraps up with an uplifting chant: “Hold on / If love is the answer / You’re home.” Pharrell Williams comes back once again, this time also with Nile Rogers, on the 56th Grammy’s Record of the Year “Get Lucky.” With the four-on-the-floor drums and little fun guitar riffs that piece together the whole song very nicely, “Get Lucky” remains a modern classic that many bars and record stores have on-repeat till this day. Taking a break from the typical radio-hits material, “Beyond” takes us off to a cinematic world especially with the lyrics about dreams and journey of the soul. “Motherboard” then reminds us of the roots of Daft Punk, being a purely instrumental track. “Driving this road down to paradise,” we get another happy tune with “Fragments of Time,” which features a garage house singer Todd Edwards and his warm vocals. Soon reaching the end of the album, Panda Bear is the last featured artist, joining the repetitive chanting of the robots in “Do’in it Right.” And, lastly, “Contact” wraps it all up with a sampled monologue from the Apollo 17 Mission to the Moon (yes, NASA approved it) and the music complements the space theme well as the instrumentals remind us of a rocketship taking off into the outer space.
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Content Details: Album – Random Access Memories / Artist – Daft Punk / Release Date – May 17, 2013 / Label – Columbia
Sources: Genius / Time / Wikipedia
