Album Review: Daft Punk-Random Access Memories

I can't think of the last time an album was as hyped or surrounded by mystery as French electronic duo Daft Punk's new release Random Access Memories. They aired a series of vague 30 second commercials during a couple episodes of Saturday Night Live that didn't show much of anything besides their trademark motorcycle helmets and brief clips of new music. On top of the commercials, they unveiled two minutes of single "Get Lucky" in the form of a bizarre, unannounced video at Coachella in April. After a few months of bizzaro marketing and internet hype, Random Access Memories is here and it completely fails to live up to the epic buzz surrounding it.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of electronic music. A lot of electronic artists just don't click with me and the appeal of electronic music to me has only decreased over the past couple years with my disdain for the dubstep and brostep movements. That being said, Daft Punk has been one of the few artists in the genre that broke the boundaries of electronic music and consistently pumped out enjoyable albums throughout most of their career. This consistency and innovation of the genre comes to a screeching halt with Random Access Memories. 

Random Access Memories is quite simply a giant bore. Their older material such as Homework and (their crowning achievement) Discovery expertly weaved many different genres and provided a lot of diverse electronic landscapes that were equal parts thumping dance/house music, dreamy pop and vintage disco. The songs were all different yet flowed very well together and constantly kept the listeners on the toes with the many different directions the tracks went in. Random Access Memories throws almost of all that to the wayside in favor of mostly slow, overlong songs that don't really go anywhere. Unlike their older material, this record takes electronic music nowhere new or interesting. The beats are repetitive and stagnant throughout and the few times there was something exciting (such as the intro sections on "Lose Yourself to Dance and "The Game of Love") they pulled away from it too fast and went back to the same old boring beats. There is honestly about 3-5 minutes of intrigue over the course of this record's bloated 75-minute runtime. Not even talented guest artists like Pharell Williams, Niles Rodgers, Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) and Panda Bear (Animal Collective) can inject much life into this dull material.

Random Access Memories is a complete and utter disappointment for Daft Punk. These dudes pioneered electronic music and to have to them come out with a record like this is truly a shame. What makes this record especially unsatisfying is that Daft Punk spent four years making it. How an act as talented as Daft Punk can spend so long making a record and churn out something so lifeless and uninspired is mind-boggling to me. Random Access Memories is a colossal letdown and has at least for the time being, completely destroyed my faith in the quality of electronic music.

1.5/5 Stars