Discovery (Daft Punk)

    Is this dance music? I don't listen to dance music; I generally like shorter songs that get to their point fairly quickly, whereas (I think) dance music is typically drawn out to let people enjoy the beat/melody/whatever. Somehow, Daft Punk manages to accomplish both of these things at the same time in Discovery. The music revels in it's robotic sounds and heavy beats, while also managing to play around with the various elements of the music in fun ways. For example, in Short Circuit the song starts off fast and energetic and as it goes on gradually begins to slow down and near the end it starts breaking down, making it sound like the track is 'short circuiting'. Clever. Speaking of playing around with itself, the album does a lot of sampling throughout, incorporating them greatly in the songs (and sometimes making the samples the entire song, such as in Superheroes or High Life) which works very well with the heavily edited and robotic sound of everything. And that robotic feel, being one of the most well known elements of the band, is just amazing here. I love the way it all sounds, with nearly everything being absolutely smothered in autotune and synth. Like in the infamous Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, where the machine-like recitation of the lyrics are a great example, while also lending itself to the theme of the song. There are some parts that can be a bit grating or drag on for too long, especially parts that just repeat the same small snippet of sound (see: the entirety of Superheroes), but thankfully the overly funky rhythm and synths usually make it bearable. And on the subject of audio that goes on too long: if you know much about what I like in music, then you might know that I have an affinity for instrumentals, both in modern and older music. And this album has its fair share of them, most of which are good. I won't retread on this ground, since I think you can probably glean my thoughts on the instrumental tracks from what I've already said. I don't know how much more I can say about Discovery right now, because just from this initial experience and the album's generally infamy I can tell that there's a lot more about it that I have to discover and unpack. All I can say for sure is that I really like what I've heard. 

    Highlights: Aerodynamic, Digital Love, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", High Life, Something About Us, Veridis Quo, Short Circuit, Face to Face.

Rating: 6/6