For me Random Access Memories is neither as bad or as good as it could have been. But it has enough about it to make it intriguing.
The whole album is not so much Back To The Future as Back to the Past, with the 1970's and 80's as the reference points. 'Game Of Love' and 'Within' could have been lifted from a vocodered soul/R&B album from the mid to late 80's, whilst the 70's disco sound is glaringly obvious on 'Give Life Back to Music', 'Lose Yourself to Dance' and 'Get Lucky'. Incidentally 'Lose Yourself To Dance' is easily my favourite of those three pure disco tracks. It sounds like a simple slow disco groove with some Nile Rogers guitar at first listen. But slowly it gets the head nodding and then the rest of you, and before you know it you're hitting repeat. Addictive like cheap candy.
Instant Crush is...weird. Considering Julian Casablancas is on vocals you have to say, well done to them for not sounding anything like The Strokes. But at the same time, I think I prefer The Strokes!
'Beyond' sounds like it could have been on Jacko's Thriller album - as one of the tracks that might not have been considered good enough to be a single.
'Fragments of Time' - ugh I can't stand this track. Billboard magazine says it sounds like the theme tune to a great 80's sitcom. I think it sounds like the theme tune to a cancelled 80's sitcom. Horrible.
Besides the aforementioned LYTD there are three other gems that make this album worth a listen namely 'Touch', 'Giorgio By Moroder' and 'Contact'.
Touch is probably the most daring and original thing on here; a collab with Paul Williams who is best known for co-writing Barbra Streisand songs and the kind of stuff that ends up in Broadway musicals. He's 72 years old and he sounds every day of those 72 years on this track, his voice frail and past its best. But as the track surges into a second-half repeated chorus, it just takes off. Not what you would expect from Daft Punk.
Giorgio By Moroder is another nod to the 70's but this time it's an acknowledgement of the man who brought us arpeggiated synths and who had such a huge impact on electronic music (Daft Punk included). Nice to hear the man talking about his life in music in the first half of the track, and then it eventually turns into something we would recognise as Morodor in the second half. Too bad about the jazzy bit in the middle though.
'Contact' is perhaps most recognisable as Daft Punk. It's actually a re-working of a track they did with DJ Falcon a while ago (which can be found on youtube). But here they have added fantastic live drums and an ending that shoots the Daft Punk time machine into hyper space. Even this track is actually a nod to the 80's as it samples and loops the intro to The Sherbs We Ride Tonight from 1982. I think this is the only track on the album that I wish went on longer than it does.
So overall, an imperfect album with some really interesting high points. But its' all done with a big dollop of French cheese.
Some clever bugger has imagined which TV shows and films would go with a selection of the albums tracks. This is worth a watch before someone gets it deleted from youtube. Not all the tracks are represented here.
