Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

The robots are back. Right now, there’s absolutely no escaping monster hit ‘Get Lucky’ featuring Pharrell Williams, which has almost instantly become the most streamed and downloaded song of all time.

Last week, Random Access Memories landed in Ireland for a single playback, before being restored to a closely-guarded box and flown straight back to London. This kind of stunt typifies a brilliant promotional campaign that’s been full of intrigue and tease.
Hoopla firmly aside, is it any good? Well, at times it’s undeniably brilliant – but not always. On a first, obviously not too thorough listen, Random Access Memories seems far too long and overblown. However when it’s great, it is absolutely stunning.
As the man said, the robots really are human after all. Random Access Memories features only live instruments, with Chic’s Nile Rodgers announcing his presence beautifully on the opening salvo ‘Give Life Back to Music’.
‘Giorgio Moroder’ is a stunner, a big, beautiful and bizarre tune that mixes spoken-word from the legendary producer with mind-boggling and sometimes hilarious sounds. These punks certainly can get incredibly daft indeed, to potent effect.
‘Instant Crush’, featuring Julian Casablancas, is way ahead of almost everything on the last two Strokes albums, while Panda Bear pops up towards the end for another album highlight in the shape of the futuristically funky ‘Doin’ it Right’.
Still – and this is a provisional opinion, given how little time there was to absorb and evaluate – a lot of Random Access Memories sounds like a less than startlingly original stew of retro disco. That said, I am looking forward to hearing it again, on the basis that I could well be proven wrong in that less than flattering judgement.

Key Track: ‘Giorgio Moroder’