Daft Punk's Random Access Memories leaked! (Also available to stream legally). Thoughts?

[ToastiestZombie]

Anyone not living under a rock has probably heard of the new Daft Punk album, Random Access Memories. It's coming out in 5 days.

One thing that I did not expect was the whole album being leaked just last monday. I won't post it here, nor will I condone it because personally I see leaking a thing before it's released is the worst kind of piracy. Some of you probably got it from the leak, you know who you are...

However, there is a way to listen to the whole thing legally for free up until the day of release. Just go to iTunes and you should be allowed to stream the whole thing. A really weird way of marketing, because a lot of people will listen to it once and not buy the album when it releases (but perhaps they just saw the per-orders and said "fuck it").

My thoughts are as follows: a range from bored, melancholic, hyped as fuck and chilled. The album gets off to a rocky start with the not bad Give Life Back to Music followed by the really, really boring "Game of Love". But when Giorgo by Moroder starts up I really felt what Daft Punk was going for here. There is barely any samples and Discover-ish things in here, the entire album features actual instruments or actual singers. To me the album felt like Daft Punk's experiment. It has jassy 40's solos followed by child choirs, and a song starting with two minutes of an interview. However, even if you don't like the objectively experimental nature of the first eleven songs it'll all be worth it when you get to the final two songs. If I could rate the songs one-by-one I'd do:

Give Life Back to Music: 6/10
Game of Love: 4/10
Giorgio by Moroder: 9/10
Within: 7/10
Instand Crush: 8/10
Lose Yourself To Dance: 6/10
Touch: 8/10
Get Lucky: 8/10
Beyond: 7/10
Fragments of Time: 8/10
Doin' It Right: 9/10
Contact: 10/10

So yeah, apart from Game of Love I can say I am very pleased by the album. There is definitely a lot of mixed opinions about it, but I fall into the "for" side of the argument.


So, anyone listened to it? Thoughts?

 

[Edguy]

Never followed Daft Punk personally, but obviously love many of their more famous tracks. Will definitively listen through the new album a lot when it hits Spotify!

EDIT; checked out Contact, and man, what an amazing, building synth-line. Too bad it really doesn't climax into anything, tho..

 

[Daft Time]

I've got to admit, I was really sucked into the hype leading up to Random Access Memories. Daft Punk, even with it's lesser tracks, has always been interesting. When "Get Lucky" was released I was pretty intrigued; the track didn't inspire "shutupandtakemymoney!" levels of appreciation from me but it was solid in it's own right. So I don't say this lightly, but:

The first half of Random Access was pretty boring.

However, the second half of the album isn't. In fact, some of the tracks are pretty good even in comparison to Daft Punk's previous material. Contact, as already mentioned, is pretty awesome. I just wish the first half of the album was a good as the second.

Well, that's my 1/50th of a dollar. Take it how you will.

EDIT: So, I went over the album again and I had heard some of the tracks out of order. My appraisal is still pretty much the same, as long as you turn the references to specific halves of the album into "one half".

 

[Edguy]

The first half of Random Access was pretty bad.

Giorgio by Moroder is pretty damn great though! Both catchy, when it actually gets going, and interesting.

 

[Daft Time]

The first half of Random Access was pretty bad.

Giorgio by Moroder is pretty damn great though! Both catchy, when it actually gets going, and interesting.

Heh, you got in before I could make an edit. XD Yeah, Giorgio in particular is pretty good.

 

[Wootmasterflex]

Touch is my absolute favorite from this one. Something about that ghostly choir really resonated with me, and the emotion in Paul William's voice is undeniable. Doin' it Right comes in a close second, then Get Lucky and Give Life Back to Music. The rest are so so for me.

 

[Edguy]

Touch is my absolute favorite from this one. Something about that ghostly choir really resonated with me, and the emotion in Paul William's voice is undeniable. Doin' it Right comes in a close second, then Get Lucky and Give Life Back to Music. The rest are so so for me.

Touch didn't really grab me at once, probably because of the long intro and low mixing (hard to focus on music when listening on a stereo), but it really hooked me when my family went to bed, and I put on my headphones. Touching song indeed!

 

[Tanis]

I'm digging it, but I'm also a 'casual, their best work was the Tron:Legacy OST' type of fan.

I'm not really sure what to make of 'Contact'.
There's some good parts to it, but the overly long intro annoyed me.

Actually, that's probably the biggest criticism I have of the album.
I felt like pretty much all of the intros could have been separate tracks that LEAD into the actually songs, which I think could make the album 'move' better.

Also:
Beyond & Giorgio by Moroder (post-interview) are AMAZING tracks.

They'll end up getting into my Daft Punk 'Best Of' playlist when the album drops may 17th.

 

[an annoyed writer]

I'm digging it, but I'm also a 'casual, their best work was the Tron:Legacy OST' type of fan.

I'm not really sure what to make of 'Contact'.
There's some good parts to it, but the overly long intro annoyed me.

Actually, that's probably the biggest criticism I have of the album.
I felt like pretty much all of the intros could have been separate tracks that LEAD into the actually songs, which I think could make the album 'move' better.

Also:
Beyond & Giorgio by Moroder (post-interview) are AMAZING tracks.

They'll end up getting into my Daft Punk 'Best Of' playlist when the album drops may 17th.

Count me in this camp. I absolutely loved their work with Joesph Trapaneese on Tron, and the intros to the various songs annoyed the hell outta me. I generally don't like having vocals, spoken or sung, in my music to begin with, with rare exceptions.

 

[capper42]

Just listening to it now. I liked the first track, and the second wasn't as bad as you guys are saying, but will probably be one I'll skip most of the time in the future. Listening to Within now, and I'd probably say that's more boring. Giorgio was great though.

Edit: Listened to the whole thing now, and yeah it's pretty good. Not incredible, but still good. It will probably grow on me more with a few listens.

 

[Trinab]

I fell in love. My first listen I wasn't super impressed, but I found myself humming a few of the songs later in the day. I went back and listened to it again, and it got a lot better.

I think this album is like a good wine, it gets better with age, and each time you taste it.

 

[gibbles545]

Ive been a long time Daft Punk fan since my dad introduced discovery to me when I was younger. I don't think they will be able to top discovery, although I still like the new album.