Album Review: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

If you're after something Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger than Daft Punk's previous three studio albums, you won't find it on Random Access Memories. Sounds have been sourced from multiple magical musical eras and trailblazers/collaborators such as Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers, Julian Casablancas (who surprisingly doesn't shine) and the awesomely weird Paul Williams (Rainbow Connection) mark their territory but never take over the robotic gearshift. That distinctive Vocoder provides much-needed cohesion in this set, which sounds like three albums in one: for the disco, for the psychedelics, for the alien abduction.

There are loads of instrumental elements – strings, flute, jazz drums and slide guitar – that you wouldn't expect Daft Punk to explore throughout Random Access Memories, and your ears will hanker for Pharrell's next amazing feat: lead single Get Lucky, which obviously references Modjo's Lady and similarly bewitches the hips; but also the standout, self-explanatory Lose Yourself To Dance, which also showcases those incandescent pipes to perfection. Then enter Motherhood, an interruption to transmission that comes in at the beginning of the third trimester. Mr G would love to pull out a contemporary dance improv to this meandering instrumental that incorporates an authentic-sounding squelchy birth, but you would never pick it as the French duo in Name That Tune.

Nine-plus minute album highlight, Giorgio By Moroder, which can best be described as Studio 54 meets Midnight Express, incorporates interview excerpts from the suave 'father of disco'. On composing music, Moroder reveals, “There was no preconception of what to do,” and Daft Punk – when they sat down to craft this, their latest and fourth, album – certainly didn't feel pressured to create more of the same. The French duo's next tour promises an entirely different experience from the lauded Pyramid.

This is the version of the Daft Punk review as it appeared in print, you can read the original full version of the review as it was published online here.