Review Summary: Music made by robots that is more deft than daft
Lots of people complain when an artist makes a “poppier” album, they see is it as a shallow money grab the artist makes while ignoring what made their music unique and special in the first place. The words “sell-out”, “failure” and “betrayal” are thrown around when an artist releases their “pop album”. Just look at how much flak artists and bands such as Metallica, Eminem, Megadeth and Emerson Lake and Palmer got when they made an album that was lighter, softer and poppier than their albums before, some bands that do that get their whole reputation ruined by their “sell-out album” even though they have lots of other material that is worth listening to. Does this mean every album that is a little poppier and softer than the artist’s earlier material sucks harder than a cheap whore and deserves to die in a fire? The answer is no, no matter what your super pretentious hipster “friends” tell you . If you need an example of an album that is poppier and more commercially appealing than the artist’s earlier material and also does not suck then look no further than Daft Punk’s Discovery. This is definitely a softer, poppier and more commercial album than Homework and it is awesome. Homework mostly had the kind of music you would hear at a crazy rave in the 90’s while you’re tripping hard on some cheap drugs, Discovery on the other hand sounds more like what you would hear at a top 40 club or at disco night. Speaking of disco this album has a huge disco influence (even look at the title: “disco-very”) and Daft Punk do an excellent job of blending it with everything from pop, rock, house, electro and many other genres. It is a bit like they just took most the influences they listed in the song “Teachers” off Homework, put them in a blender along with their own brand of French house music, blended the crap out of it till it was a fine liquid of music, poured it out and cleaned it up a bit and then added some guitar solos, effects and robot vocals to it. You can definitely tell Daft Punk made this album a big tribute to all the music that influenced them while growing up.
Now the first thing you hear when you put on this album is the song “One More Time” and it starts this album off with a bang of electro pop goodness, it has everything that gets you in the mood to dance: a great catchy as hell hook, a driving bassline and some wonderful break downs and sweeping build ups, the album then continues strongly with “Aerodynamic” and “Digital Love”, the first being a great instrumental based around a Yngwie Malmsteen-like classical guitar solo and some spacey effects and the second being a very poppy and fun song based around a sample of “I Love You More” by George Duke that features another great solo (that sounds like it is played on a keytar straight out of a campy 80’s song) and also the classic Daft Punk robot vocals. To finally top it off is “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”, likely the most well-known and also most ear-wormy song on the whole album (and that is saying a lot considering how catchy many of the other songs are), it has the robot vocals again and is based around another great sample and it is guaranteed to be stuck deep inside your brain for weeks like some horrifying musical parasite. The first four songs of the album all blend into each other which is a nice touch since it makes them flow great together and also makes sure the energy of each song is not lost by a silence. Also these first four songs best show Daft Punk’s great ability to blend old elements of disco, rock and funk with newer elements such as house in a seamless way to make something new. Although the next few songs kind of pale in comparison to the first four songs and also the album loses a bit of steam at this point, it is still great, with “High Life” being a good French house number and “Superheroes” having some great synths and laser effects. These songs kind of are a little less poppy and more house-like than the first four which may be welcoming to some listeners who like some of the French house stuff on Homework, but they really do kind of bring the energy of the album down and are not quite as good as the first four songs (although they are very far from being bad songs by any means), this not bad of course since it leads up to one of the best and also most underrated songs Daft Punk has done: “Something About Us”.The song is very simple both instrumentally and lyrically and also because of this it is a very effective love song, its strength to the point and has nothing to hide behind a robot mask and also has a great relaxing, jazzy mood to it. The next few songs (which are all instrumental) after that too are also very relaxed and chill, with “Voyager” having an amazing funky bassline mixed with some spiraling spacey synths and “Short Circuit” starting off as a quirky, funky house song before transforming suddenly into a great and very relaxing and trippy house song. After these instrumentals you get “Face to Face” which is a great pop song that brings the energy up again with a catchy hook and great vocals before finally finishing off the album with “Too Long”, which would be a better song if it was cut a little from being ten minutes long (although I guess that would ruin the joke of it), but it is still a good finish to a great record.
In the end Discovery is a fantastic album that combines the old and the new to make something great. It is not a deep record that will make you rethink everything you know about music and also make you question all your life choices involving music or anything, but it is an extremely fun record that has a nostalgic sense of fun and discovery to it. It has also aged very well considering it was released over 12 years ago (some of you may be feeling a bit old thinking about this). It is not a perfect album by any means and has it’s flaws such as the mid section which loses a lot of the energy and some songs that last a bit too long for their own good but it is still an outstanding album and also an album that shows that going pop is not always a bad thing.
Recommended tracks:
-One More Time
-Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
-Something About Us
-Face to Face
5/5
