[May 22, 2013] Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories': Talking points Tweet May 21, 2013 (The Oregonian - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Last week we covered how everyone loves the new Vampire Weekend record, "Modern Vampires of the City." This week in OMG AWESOME: Daft Punk. Let's discuss. Daft Punk "Random Access Memories," teased for months via interviews with collaborators, a trailer broadcast at Coachella, and a million shiny photos of guys in shiny helmets, arrived in my mailbox yesterday as just a plain old CD. I guess I was expecting a hologram, or a Google doodle, or something. The fourth album from the French duo of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, RAM is jammed with guests like the Strokes' Julian Casablancas, disco, R&B legend Nile Rodgers, hip-hop bon vivant Pharrell Williams, and Italian producer and disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder. The narrative: Electronic music pioneers emerge into a world where electronic music has increasing influence, look around, and turn the whole thing on its head by going analog, direct to tape, and bringing a mess of live instruments out front. Is it any good It's smooothe, high thread count, luxury dance music and slow jams. Does your 3-year-old have thoughts Listening to the opening track, "Give Life Back to Music," which fits the narrative, she said it was "good dinner music." Why does Moroder talk so much on his track I guess the idea is that the song becomes a kind of audio documentary, but I always feel like the record skipped to a hidden commentary track, before then falling into synth riff that's a distant cousin to the music from the chase scene in "Fletch." (In conclusion: song good, talking bad.) Actual reviews by writers with time Absolutely! The New Yorker's Sasha Fere-Jones: " 'Discovery,' from 2001, is perhaps the most influential dance record in recent memory ... 'Random Access Memories,' is an attempt to make the kind of disco record that they sampled so heavily for "Discovery." As such, it serves as a tribute to those who came before them and as a direct rebuke to much of what they've spawned." Spin: Scores an 8 of 10, named Essential. "So the album opens like an overture to a Siegfried & Roy revue: smoke machines and lasers, spandex and glitter, roller-skaters and fire-breathers, blown-back hair, gold lame, rhinestones, dancers, a bear ... " Chicago Tribune: } stars. " ... isn't a victory lap so much as a commentary on what's missing from the new golden age of electronic dance music." Pitchfork: 8.8 of 10, Best New Music. "If people still went into stereo shops and bought stereos regularly, like they did during the era Daft Punk draw from, this record, with its meticulously recorded analog sound, would be an album to test out a potential system, right up there with Steely Dan's Aja and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Daft Punk make clear that one way to "give life back to music" is through the power of high fidelity." For more information on Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" please consult your local Internet: Pitchfork: Brought the full digital package bear on this cover story on the duo. Worth the click just to look at it. Rolling Stone: Went with the "All Hail Our Robot Overlords" headline. The New York Times: Because guys in fancy suits and robot helmets in the Sunday Times will always be fun. ___ (c)2013 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) Visit The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) at www.oregonian.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]