Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

[Guest Araungzeb]

 

I don't understand all of the hate that this one is getting, yeah they're not reinventing the wheel here but does it really matter? Just because an album isn't pushing the envelope further and further doesn't necessarily make it worthless or unenjoyable. This is one of my major problems with the IDM community in general, the mentality that if something sounds mainstream or radio-friendly it's automatically not worth listening to or subject to an absurd amount of scrutiny. There's some absolutely beautiful and very fun music on here, it might not be perfect but it's definitely worth listening to.

The fuck are you talking about? Daft Punk was radio-friendly and simplistic from the start, some of their hits are just tightened old funk samples like Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Nobody in the thread accused them for that. They've become more cliche-oriented and non inspired in terms of finding their own sound than it is tolerated, that's all.

 

I know they've always been radio friendly, but I'm hearing the same exact criticisms that were levelled at Discovery right when it came out, that everything was too repetitive, not forward-thinking, not inspired, cliche-ridden, ect. It took a while for people to fully appreciate Discovery and realize that it was more than just repetitive samples from the 70s loosely strung together, wish people wouldn't make such harsh snap judgements after one listen.

[Guest drukqs]

I'm sorry but I wish they would have just cut Pharrell out of the song completely and just jammed for 4 minutes on the "We're up all night to get lucky" vocal until it was chopped and screwed into unintelligibility.

 

Honestly,

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNMAAZNTNms

 

Even the album's main song ended up just being a repetitive, gooey fucking cheesy mess of underwhelming "Ooh look we're doing the opposite of what everyone else in the music scene is doing right now" bullshit gimmick. Also still sick of seeing this vomit on my tumblr of people pretending this album isn't a huge letdown. What's the definition of denial again? I mean the album isn't HORRIBLE but even Squarepusher went this direction and it wasn't as bad as this...

[jules]

thing is, it is not the opposite of what people are doing in music.

 

 

plus I bet jamiroquai is pissed.

[Kooch]

It sounds like Chromeo. And that is not a compliment.

[delet...]

Haven't heard the album and this is not a comment on it. But for the disco haters in the thread. People who probably never posted in the disco youtube thread, or the italo youtube thread. We don't listen to disco for ironic reasons. We listen to it cause it makes us go all gooey plus want to dance.

 

go back to listening to QOTSA in your pick-up.

[ghOsty]

Gave the stream a listen, and pretty much reinforced every thought I had about this album. I tried to give it a fair chance, I really did. But this album is so fucking boring. "Get Lucky" is definitely the highlight and we all know that song is already pretty tired and never was that great. The tracks all sound very samey, and the grooves are pretty safe for being something that was going to "breathe life back into music". And is it just me or is the mixing fucking awful? Everything sounds so overly bright and sterile, there's no life to any of the tracks. I'd rather go put on an actual disco record than listen to this overhyped garbage. Fuck this, I'm going to listen to the Commodores instead and never look back on this.

[Guest isaki]

this is a great daft punk album

[Mellow U]

Haven't heard the album and this is not a comment on it. But for the disco haters in the thread. People who probably never posted in the disco youtube thread, or the italo youtube thread. We don't listen to disco for ironic reasons. We listen to it cause it makes us go all gooey plus want to dance.

 

go back to listening to QOTSA in your pick-up.

 

Hey now, I haven't read any of the stuff you're responding to here, but I happen to like this record AND I'm massively into QOTSA. I do not, however, drive a pick-up and resent the implication that QOTSA fans are in some way not intelligent enough to "understand" disco music.

 

Anyway, that's all. Carry on.

[Guest cult fiction]

Gave the stream a listen, and pretty much reinforced every thought I had about this album. I tried to give it a fair chance, I really did. But this album is so fucking boring. "Get Lucky" is definitely the highlight and we all know that song is already pretty tired and never was that great. The tracks all sound very samey, and the grooves are pretty safe for being something that was going to "breathe life back into music". And is it just me or is the mixing fucking awful? Everything sounds so overly bright and sterile, there's no life to any of the tracks. I'd rather go put on an actual disco record than listen to this overhyped garbage. Fuck this, I'm going to listen to the Commodores instead and never look back on this.

Funny that you would say the mixing is awful because it's too bright - I think the mixing is awful for just the opposite reason. Sounds very warm and bassy to me - too warm in fact, there's no bite to the mix.

 

 

 

I don't understand all of the hate that this one is getting, yeah they're not reinventing the wheel here but does it really matter? Just because an album isn't pushing the envelope further and further doesn't necessarily make it worthless or unenjoyable. This is one of my major problems with the IDM community in general, the mentality that if something sounds mainstream or radio-friendly it's automatically not worth listening to or subject to an absurd amount of scrutiny. There's some absolutely beautiful and very fun music on here, it might not be perfect but it's definitely worth listening to.

The fuck are you talking about? Daft Punk was radio-friendly and simplistic from the start, some of their hits are just tightened old funk samples like Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Nobody in the thread accused them for that. They've become more cliche-oriented and non inspired in terms of finding their own sound than it is tolerated, that's all.

 

I know they've always been radio friendly, but I'm hearing the same exact criticisms that were levelled at Discovery right when it came out, that everything was too repetitive, not forward-thinking, not inspired, cliche-ridden, ect. It took a while for people to fully appreciate Discovery and realize that it was more than just repetitive samples from the 70s loosely strung together, wish people wouldn't make such harsh snap judgements after one listen.

 

 

It is a bit silly for people to be posting multi-paragraph reviews when they have only listened through half the album. How 2013...

[Ivan Ooze]

God this album sounds like fucking Hatsunne Miku

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQi_eue52rc

 

Especially on Instant Crush. Euugghhhh...

wang

[YEK]

so is this like a concept album? it seems all the guest tracks the guests are talking about partying, reminiscing... hence the random access "memories" .. that's what i think

listened to it a second time properly with a more open mind and enjoyed it a lot more

[rstark]

it's sounding better now that i'm drunk.. i'll move from 7.3 to 7.7

Edited May 14, 2013 by rstark

[rixxx]

 

 

Giorgio Moroder

 

[Rubin Farr]

a little wanky in some places, reminds me of old dmx krew

[LimpyLoo]

 

 

Giorgio Moroder

 

 

I didn't know Arnold Schwarzenegger smoked cigarettes. He looks awful glad about it. Must be a menthol.

[Guest Starblazer]

I'm only on my second listen so far.....
Enjoying it, it's a nice mix of disco funk with that daft element. Some great musicianship on there and production sound is nice, smooth and not over done.

[NorthernFusion]

After a couple of listens, I'll give this a 4/10. There are some pretty nice parts, but there's so much deadweight on here that it's too much to bear.

[Guest wza]

50% hype & 50% tribute to the good old days. it's like Bob James and Chic made a boring little baby

[jhonny]

[jhonny]

LOL @

 

 

“Listening to RAM obv. The first track is pish.” - Jackmaster

“it’s better than the second” - Four Tet

[cear]

 

lol

[delet...]

gleh, i'm not d/l'ing itunes to stream lisn to this .. enculer !! i want to hear it now already !! ar welL. .. it'll be everywhere else on saturday.

[Alzado]

you can torrent it pretty easily

[delet...]

 

Haven't heard the album and this is not a comment on it. But for the disco haters in the thread. People who probably never posted in the disco youtube thread, or the italo youtube thread. We don't listen to disco for ironic reasons. We listen to it cause it makes us go all gooey plus want to dance.

 

go back to listening to QOTSA in your pick-up.

 

Hey now, I haven't read any of the stuff you're responding to here, but I happen to like this record AND I'm massively into QOTSA. I do not, however, drive a pick-up and resent the implication that QOTSA fans are in some way not intelligent enough to "understand" disco music.

 

Anyway, that's all. Carry on.

 

 

 

heh, my point to the person that i actually wanted to respond was that generalization isn't so fun when it's directed at you. Hence the pick-up bait.

 

As for your line QOTSA fans about not being intelligent enough to lisn to disco, well that was aspersion magic you cast all by yourself. heh, merveilleux ...

 

 

 

you can torrent it pretty easily

 

yeah, but i'm a goodie two shoes lolzado. (plus too lazy, and they didn't put it up fer torrent did they, so it's kinda not kosher if i did, plus if it's crap, then i'd have to delete it off my hard drive ... crikey !! ).

[joshuatxuk]

so is this like a concept album? it seems all the guest tracks the guests are talking about partying, reminiscing... hence the random access "memories" .. that's what i think

listened to it a second time properly with a more open mind and enjoyed it a lot more

 

Daft Punk began experimenting with material for a fourth studio album in 2008, whilst working on the Tron: Legacy score.^[4][5] AsThomas Bangalter mentioned at the time, "Making music for a movie is very humbling. We’ve been working on some of our music concurrently."^[5] The duo were dissatisfied with the resulting demos of Random Access Memories, which then mostly relied onsynthesizers. They eventually struck upon the idea of working with live musicians: "We wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers, but with people." Daft Punk avoided the use of sampling on the album with the exception of the final track, "Contact".^[4]

 

The album's title is said to encapsulate Daft Punk's interest in the past, referencing both technology and the human experience. Bangalter explained the reasoning behind the name: "We were drawing a parallel between the brain and the hard drive – the random way that memories are stored."^[4] Daft Punk felt that while current technology allows for an unlimited capacity to store recorded material, the content produced by contemporary artists has diminished in quality. Their goal was therefore to maximize the potential of infinite storage by recording a sprawling amount of elements. The duo pointed to the process as being further inspiration for the album's title, as they sought to make connections out of the random series of ideas.^[22]

 

 

I could easily be a cynical dick and say "well thats all well and good but this result sucked" but I really think they put a sincere effort into making Random Access Memories. I actually think they have a good point with the concept - there's so much mediocre music out there because it's so easy to make slickly produced but soulless music, a lot of which is quite popular. But my retort would be that there's more exciting and diverse music than every before for the same reason. Daft Punk made a decent album, one with a few quite lovely tracks even, but it's not remarkable and I can't help but stress that far more novel tracks are being created on laptops by amateur producers and underground bands right now. The quality music is out there, it's just a bit overwhelming to sort through it all.

Edited May 14, 2013 by joshuatx