Daft Punk’s legendary final studio album created a lasting legacy

Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

The 56th Annual Grammy Awards had masterclass albums from some of today’s finest working artists. Both Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar were Album of the Year nominees with “Red” and “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” respectively. But neither of them won 10 years ago.

Instead, two robots received the gilded gramophone in 2014. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, the Frenchmen who made up electronic music duo Daft Punk, remained silent in their all-white robot suits after taking the stage. They let Paul Williams and Pharrell, guest artists who defined their megahit “Random Access Memories,” do the talking.

Even by the Grammys in 2014, Daft Punk’s legacy had already been set in stone. Other popular artists of the time like Ye reworked the band’s songs, the duo made soundtracks for films like “Tron: Legacy” and they became synonymous with electronic dance music.

But “Random Access Memories” cemented Daft Punk within popular culture by bringing electronic dance music into the mainstream with accessible hit songs. It created a lasting legacy for the duo even after the pair split in 2021.

With “Give Life Back to Music,” the album starts with a bang, featuring lyrics sung by the robots via vocoders and remarkable guitar work from Nile Rodgers and Paul Jackson Jr. Daft Punk crafts this song to immediately capture the listener’s attention and get them in the mood to dance.

Daft Punk also uses their final studio album, and more specifically the third track “Giorgio by Moroder,” to pay homage to Giorgio Moroder, an icon of electronic music. It starts with a monologue by Moroder, who is known as the “Father of Disco,” about his influence on the techno music scene. The nine-minute song incorporates standard house music beats, orchestral music, drums and steel guitar riffs to break the barriers of what an electronic song can be.

But a key theme of “Random Access Memories” is love or rather lost love. After the exuberance of “Give Life Back to Music,” the duo offers a mellow yet somber contrast with “Instant Crush” and “The Game of Love.” “Instant Crush” features the lead singer of The Strokes, Julian Casablancas, blending keyboards, synthesizers and bass guitar to produce a heartbreaking tale about young love and how fleeting that feeling is.

While the themes of love are powerful and unforgettable, this album will be known for the eighth track, “Get Lucky.”

The radio version of “Get Lucky” has nearly 900 million plays on Spotify and the full six-minute version has over 400 million. It’s a mix of disco, funk, house music and pop, benefitting from Pharrell’s vocals and guitar riffs by Nile Rodgers. The catchy chorus about staying up all night gave the song much more of a broader appeal. Video games like NBA 2K13 used “Get Lucky” as part of its soundtrack and Daft Punk performed the song at the Grammys with Stevie Wonder, Rodgers, and Pharrell.

But there are also multiple songs that are slow and give the listener some of the introspection that went into making “Random Access Memories.” Even with the mega pop hits, tunes about love and all the success one could ask for, the French duo still wanted to discover more about themselves. The song “Within” explores Daft Punk’s desire to reflect both as the characters they created and as individuals.

“Within” starts with a piano playing a few chords, vastly different from the rest of the songs. But Daft Punk, via their vocoders once again, ask themselves who they are. It’s as if they were hinting at the latter stages of their time together as an electronic duo.

“Random Access Memories” didn’t need this self-reflection. Daft Punk could’ve settled for delivering a pop smash hit with their earlier songs. But with these specific tracks, a sense of finality emerges. Sure, they appeared as guest artists with The Weeknd and stayed together for eight more years. But with this being their last studio album, the listener can get closure a decade later.

Best track: “Touch” (ft. Paul Williams)

There’s no doubt that the seventh track of “Random Access Memories” is its finest. It can also be seen as the most important to Daft Punk. The proof of this comes through in their Epilogue video from February 2021 that announced their split due to concerns about the progress of artificial intelligence and other technology.

In this final video, one of the robots blows up the other and walks into the sunset with the iconic children’s choir from “Touch” playing in the background. It’s easy to see why the two would pick this song since it’s a musical odyssey that perfectly captures the entire essence of the album.

To start the track, a faint sound grows in volume for nearly two minutes. It sounds like a robot trying to figure out how to speak. But all of a sudden, Williams speaks about a longing to be more human with lyrics like, “Touch, where do you lead? / I need something more / Tell me what you see / I need something more.”

By the three-minute mark, Daft Punk takes over. An orchestra bombards the listener, creating a feeling of magic and a fulfilling life. The track then slows down, eventually bringing in the choir that chants “If love is the answer / You’re home, hold on.” The robots are overwhelmed.

Williams then concludes with “Touch, sweet touch / You’ve given me too much to feel / Sweet touch / You’ve almost convinced me I’m real / I need something more.” It’s Daft Punk reflecting on the album and life they’ve made. It’s “Random Access Memories” in a nutshell.

Hardest bars: “Instant Crush” (ft. Julian Casablancas)

With lines like, “And we will never be alone again / ‘Cause it doesn’t happen every day / Kinda counted on you being a friend / Can I give it up or give it away,” Daft Punk hammers home the theme of lost love. There are no more moments of intimacy, there are no more times where they can spend with just each other.

The fictional lovers will never be close anymore. But they’ll never forget the memories, as Daft Punk and Casablancas sing, “It didn’t matter what they wanted to see / He thought he saw someone that looked just like me / The summer memory that just never dies.” The memories of happiness will now haunt them, creating a brutally honest yet universal song.

One skip: “Motherboard”

Trying to pick a song to skip in this album is like grasping at straws. Every song feels intentional, but Daft Punk does always like to include songs with no lyrics in them, going back to their French touch roots. Songs like this can turn some people away from the duo.

The sounds in “Motherboard” aren’t as captivating as some of the others on the album; it doesn’t offer anything that is distinctly different. The song features an orchestra mixed with electronic music, but it’s not as powerful as other tracks like “Giorgio by Moroder.”

Final thoughts:

In the build-up to the 10th anniversary of “Random Access Memories,” Daft Punk has re-released the album with extra songs and outtakes of classics like “Give Life Back to Music” and “Get Lucky.” They wanted to show fans the process that went into making this legendary album.

“Random Access Memories” showed a clear evolution for the duo. Daft Punk felt they could blend jazz, pop, funk and disco in a way they never had before. And on that front, they were certainly successful.

Daft Punk won four Grammys a decade ago, tied for the most wins during the ceremony. “Random Access Memories” is the only project of theirs to top the US Billboard 200. Rolling Stone eventually named it one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2020, solidifying its legacy in the pantheon of electronic dance music.