Why do they bother honestly? Could there be any more pointless records than those made by Daft Punk?
A vicious cycle was created in 1997 when Daft Punk released Homewerk; an album, which despite featuring in every top 100 list of the 1990s from the mighty Pitchfork to my humble blog, was and still is utterly pointless.
2001’s Discovery would go on to be more revered, and more beloved, but it too was an exercise in wasting the world’s collective time and money.
Then Daft Punk truly gave the game away with 2005’s Human After All, a record that made no attempt to hide its sheer pointlessness
Okay, so by now you may be quite rightly perplexed, how can records that are held in such high regard be so flippantly derided. Well the answer is simply; Daft Punk don’t make good albums, they just don’t.
We’ve been going through the same process over and over and over again, and yet for some reason, the world seems to have some kind of collective amnesia when it comes to a Daft Punk album release.
So let’s review the process: Daft Punk arrive after an infuriatingly long wait at a seemingly random moment with a new album. By this point an uncontrollable wave of anticipation has developed, and the album disappoints.Homewerk and Discovery were fragmented awkward records, that didn’t flow in the slightest, staggering between moments of remarkable brilliance and uncomfortable irrelevance.
The critics of the day, doing their duty, dole out 3/5 reviews, and the music world seems strangely deflated, and thenit happens. Daft Punk decide to play live and they blow everyone away. Creating mesmeric two hour long mixes, never stopping to soak in applause, never wasting a second, always mixing, merging and layering beats, they force groups of 50,000 people to dance relentlessly, and then they stop, they stop playing and vanish for another five years, starting the cycle a new.
For others the experience is different, they don’t see Daft Punk live, instead they venture out to a club and hear the way “Da Funk” and “Aerodynamic” intertwine so brilliantly into the mix, how the tracks manage to simultaneously elide with and transcend those records that they are fortunate/unfortunate enough to be mixed with.
Then of course there are the remixes and samples. Artists as far afield as Kanye West and Rollo Tomassi will pinch and borrow Daft Punk’s inescapable beats unleashing them on a new and unprepared audience. In Kanye’s case he rode “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” all the way to the top of the charts.
Then the grand re-think occurs. Two or three years after Daft Punk depart the scene and go on another endless hiatus, those critics who once were skeptical begin to rewrite those mediocre reviews. Suddenly Homewerk becomes a five star classic, and suddenly music fans begin to speak of Daft Punk in hushed reverent tones all over again, setting themselves up for the next disappointment.
The mystery has been uncovered. Daft Punk don’t make proper LPs, and Homework, Discovery and Human After All certainly haven’t got any better, it’s just that their true purpose has been revealed. Daft Punk create collections of beats, samples and hooks, designed to layer and intermix with one another in the live arena.
Entire tracks like “Short Circuit”, “Steam Machine” and “Rollin And Scratching” exist only so that they can be reduced down to 15 samples which can seamlessly provide a segue from one hit to the next, or to beef up that final bass drop of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”.
So as critics scratch their heads and wonder why the long awaited Tron Legacy Soundtrack sounds so patchy, and while millions of fans rant in frustration “I waited five years for this!?!?!”; we should all remember that Daft Punk, whisper it, don’t make good records, they never have.
It’s time Daft Punk gave up the ghost and started releasing strings of singles and EPs and stopped getting everyones’ hopes up, because even though we should know what to expect, we can’t help but get carried away everytime a Daft Punk record is looming on the horizon.
Still thirteen years after Homework it’s hard to be mad, Daft Punk still make the best worst albums in the world, andTron Legacy is no exception.
So please Daft Punk lets have an end to disappointing faux albums and let’s have more moments like these:
12 comments:
Yeah, no.
I understand you probably thrive off of the live moments that DP gives out whenever the duo plays collectively on a big stage - however, these moments build off of what they made off the albums. It's that inspiration made in the albums that also make up what they do live too.
I understand that you're all butt ravaged over the fact people like stuff you don't - but it's time you deal with it. It's society's choice on whether or not they want hype over a new daft album or not. If you don't like that, then don't complain.
Also, you honestly expect Daft Punk to give up just making ANY albums as a whole? How the fuck are they gonna make any money then? Christ, you might as well run out and say "I WANT YOU TO QUIT YOUR JOB BECAUSE I'M PROBABLY JEALOUS OVER THE FACT I DON'T HAVE A LIVING LIKE THEM." They need money, and that's how they get it.
Also, don't know if you knew this, but it's "Homework" bro, not "Homewerk." You sure are professional at providing opinions, I'll give you that, but not details in your reviews.
You should stop breathing, immediately.
computerwaves is pretty spot on, the other 3 are morons...
I'm sure you could say the same thing about Michael Jackson, the most sampled artist in musical history. Why is he so sampled? Because he was fucking brilliant and made great music. Daft Punk is brilliant and make great music. That's what happens in music.
-the DJ/producer
"infuriatingly long wait" - this is self-contradictory! It wouldn't be infuriating if every album was crap, now would it?
I dont think anyone who commented above me gets the point.. I think the author was sarcastic wen he said "Daft Punk Should Stop Making Albums, Immediately." If he wasnt then please read on:
"Then Daft Punk truly gave the game away with 2005’s Human After All, a record that made no attempt to hide its sheer pointlessness" -
Exactly its the sheer pointlessness that makes them so bloody good. I dont think they are making music for money or for fame or bcos its their job. They do it bcos THEY enjoy it. Whether the whole world enjoys it or not is not their f***in business...
Even their Alive 2007 was mindblowing. Why? Cos they are good at "Creating mesmeric two hour long mixes, never stopping to soak in applause, never wasting a second, always mixing, merging and layering beats, they force groups of 50,000 people to dance relentlessly.."
And yes I think Daft Punk is GOD cos a performance like Alive 2007 is yet to be made... I do like Skrillex, Deadmau5, Tiesto, David Guetta and other artists, but they all just plays songs/mixes... Alive 2007 is a story that they are telling us. It needs to be seen (the lightshow) & heard (try fan created video in youtube) without a pause to be understood. Believe me you ll be going through a million emotions by the time you finish watching it...
I dont think I ll ever be able to see any of their live performances cos they mainly tour in Europe & U.S (I m from India). Still wishing..
Wat I m trying to say is
DAFT PUNK = GOD.
And as a youtube comment goes: "only daft punk can say something 5,000 times, and its still sounds awesme as fuck."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy_eJFj7PKE
If U came to hate U came to leave the fans have spoken follow rule 19
obviously, every single person who commented likes Daft Punk because they are amazing. your just a hater, have horrible taste in music and your blogs are pointless, so just stop
"Then the grand re-think occurs. Two or three years after Daft Punk depart the scene and go on another endless hiatus, those critics who once were skeptical begin to rewrite those mediocre reviews. Suddenly Homewerk becomes a five star classic, and suddenly music fans begin to speak of Daft Punk in hushed reverent tones all over again, setting themselves up for the next disappointment.
"
I laughed pretty hard at this bit, thanks mate.
You sir should be shot.
I think daft punk should still make albums and i look forward for 2013 for daft punk come back so plz do not say there horrible if there better than justice,dead mouse, or or other djs that suck.
Dummy... I bet you think the Beatles suck too... Get in a car accident.
Hey dude,
first Tron in a soundtrack and not an album.
People actually waited 8 years for another album (R.A.M.) since Homework in 2005.
If you have notice every album is different according to their inspirations at that time.
Samples and voice vocoder are their signature on almost every track.
I think you stop writing about EDM immediately.
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