|
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| daft
punk |
| discovery |
Daft
Punk are so hip, it must hurt. Music
journalists are falling over themselves to
proclaim their new album Discovery as phase
two in their singular pop culture revolution
(inspiring everyone from Spiller,
Madonna through to Cher’s Believe). It’s
so funny, apparently, because it takes that
most embarrassed genre of the early 80s
Disco (RIP) and pretends it’s cool. So
uncool it’s cool? Apparently.
Discovery
itself, actually, is not interested in any
of this. It says: forget irony, forget
taking the piss; follow the sentiments of
the song. One More Time asks us merely to
celebrate, to dance like we mean it and
sticks it to the purists with its persistent
pop beat. It’s followed by the ridiculous
Aerodynamic which cheekily splays Bill &
Ted style Van Halen guitar wanking all over
the beat. Is it stupid? Yeah! Does it work:
Way! Digital Love is perfect, 70s sitcom
soundtrack suddenly digitalised and a vocada
vocal sweetly singing “there’s nothing
wrong with a little fun, we were dancing all
night long”. Does it rock? Yes, my friend,
it rocks.
Next up the vocada breakdown of
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger which takes
the whole electronic voice idea and runs it
into the ground. We created it? We destroy
it!
The
onslaught continues, Cresendolls doing what
its says on the pack, a spiralling one-liner
that’s like a perfect accompaniment to a 4
minute supermarket dash with a ghostly wail
adding a “whayyy” to proceedings.
Basically the theme tune to The Price Is
Right on repeat (and speed). Still no let
up? Hell no, minor Air-like respite from
Nightvision and back on the dance floor for
Superheroes and the Basement Jaxx carnival
of High life.
The
chill factor comes: lounge room robotic love
on Something About Us, the cut and paste
soul of Face To Face and the (frankly too
long) Too Long. In between the dodge factor
comes only on Veridis Quo veering too
closely to its prog rock space opera roots
proving not everything about the disco was
fun. Just the biggest, silliest, daftest
bits.
And
that’s the key to Discovery: it’s hardly
revolutionary, it’s a ram raid of the
70s/80s vaults in many ways but every time
with a quirk and smile, pop sensibilities
and crucially, a common understanding of how
to work a dance floor. It takes the
memorable (for good or for bad) and
sandwiches them together in the most
inventive and infectious ways. It’s too
much fun, it’s a complete party record.
Now how uncool is that?
Review
by Colin
|
Track
Listing |
|
One More Time
Aerodynamic
Digital Love
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Crescendolls
Nightvision
Superheroes
High Life
Something About Us
Voyager
Veridis Quo
Short Circuit
Face To Face
Too Long |
|
Music
provided by Tower
Records
|
