Album: Daft Punk, Random Access Memories (Columbia)
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.They may present an image of faceless androids, but Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo are always about the interface between technology and emotion – and RAM is their most emotional record yet. Because though the vocodered vocals frequently put android futurism front and centre, it was recorded using more actual flesh-and-blood human beings than any previous Daft Punk release.
One thing RAM is – and it is many things – is a love letter. A heartfelt epistle expressing their love affair with music, and above all, with disco. And it's reciprocal and requited: the two towering gods of the genre, Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers, both appear on the album.
Now and then the emphasis shifts to evoke an eternal 1984. Sometimes entire tracks are given over to incidental music. Glorious moments include the Stylophone solo on the Hall & Oates-like "Fragments of Time", and "Doin' It Right", on which Animal Collective's Panda Bear delivers lines as simple and utopian as anything on "One More Time".
It ends with a curio called "Contact", but by then Random Access Memories has done its job. It's an album which makes you feel warm. It's the sound of love, after all.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments