Random Access Memories

Random Access Memories
Studio album by Daft Punk
Publication (s)	17th May 2013
admission	2008–2012
Label (s)	Daft Life, Columbia Records
Format (s)	CD, record, download
Genre (s)	Disco , electronic dance music , electro , pop music
Title (number)	13
running time	74:24
chronology Tron: Legacy (Soundtrack) (2010) Random Access Memories -
Single releases April 19, 2013 Get lucky August 13, 2013 Lose Yourself to Dance 3rd September 2013 Doin 'It Right

Random Access Memories is the fourth studio album by the French electronic duo Daft Punk . It was released on May 17, 2013 and topped the charts in the US and most of Europe . Many international star musicians were involved in the production, including Panda Bear , Julian Casablancas , DJ Falcon , Chilly Gonzales , Giorgio Moroder , Nile Rodgers , Paul Williams and Pharrell Williams .

The album contains numerous references to the sounds of the 1970s and 1980s. The album also contains an interview montage with the track Giorgio by Moroder , in which the founder of synthesizer disco music Moroder expresses himself about his musical origins.

production

The duo began working on new material during the production of the film score for Tron: Legacy 2008, but without a concept or album in mind. The recordings took place in five different studios, Henson Recording Studios, Conway Recording Studios and Capitol Studios in California , Electric Lady Studios in New York City and Gang Recording Studio in Paris . Vocal recordings took place mainly in Paris, while the instrumental and percussion sessions were made in the USA. During the production, Daft Punk almost completely dispensed with samples and had the majority of the instruments played live, with the exception of the final track Contact . Many accompanying instruments such as woodwind instruments or string orchestras , but also choir passages were recorded, some of which later did not end up on the final album. They also used sound effects that were atypical for music, such as water droplets or clinking cutlery, for which they received support from film experts from Warner Bros. for their implementation and recording. Electronic elements were reduced to a minimum, only a modular synthesizer and a vocoder were still used.

The song Giorgio by Moroder together with Giorgio Moroder is a monologue he spoke about his life as well as a “vocal booth” that contains three microphones from the 1960s to the present day. The sound engineer said that the individual microphones should represent the respective stages of Moroder's life. When asked whether you could hear the difference, the sound engineer denied, which is why Moroder asked why you should do it that way, whereupon he replied that Thomas [Bangalter] heard the difference.

On the background of why so many guest musicians were involved in the creation of the album, Bangalter said that it was also about making music with the people they admired themselves.

The idea of ​​working with musicians was way beyond making it sound better. It was an opportunity to create something on a very personal level with people that we admire the most.

- Thomas Bangalter

Track list

1. Give Life Back to Music (4:36)
2. The Game of Love (5:22)
3. Giorgio by Moroder (featuring Giorgio Moroder ) (9:05)
4. Within (3:49)
5. Instant Crush (featuring Julian Casablancas ) (5:38)
6. Lose Yourself to Dance (featuring Pharrell Williams ) (5:54)
7. Touch (featuring Paul Williams ) (8:19)
8. Get Lucky (featuring Pharrell Williams) (6:10)
9. Beyond (4:51)
10. Motherboard (5:42)
11. Fragments of Time (featuring Todd Edwards ) (4:40)
12. Doin 'It Right (featuring Panda Bear ) (4:12)
13. Contact (6:24)
14. Horizon (bonus track only on the release in Japan) (4:24)

Critical reception

Professional reviews
Average rating
source	rating
Metacritic	87%
More reviews
source	rating
Rolling Stone
Allmusic
The Telegraph
The Observer
The Guardian
The Independent
Billboard
PopMatters
Spin
NME
According to
Disk tests
CD ratings
CDStarts

The album received almost exclusively positive reviews. With a Metascore of 87 points calculated from 47 English reviews , it is one of the highest rated albums ever and arguably the best recorded commercially successful album of 2013.

“Pretty yesterday - and still pretty ingenious: On their new album, Daft Punk's disco robots plunder their way back and forth through pop history, every note seems familiar. It is precisely this artistic bow to the past that makes "Random Access Memories" a masterpiece. [...] 'Random Access Memories' is over 70 minutes long, but entertaining throughout. Overflowing with allusions, enriched by guests, it still sounds like daft punk. An album staged as a masterpiece withstands its staging. "

- Extract from the review of the mirror

Sassan Niasseri from the German edition of the music magazine Rolling Stone praises the overall sound, the features of Giorgio Moroder and Pharrell Williams and especially the song touch . Only the collaborations with Julian Casablancas , Panda Bear and Chilly Gonzales are criticized .

“The returns are surprising for every single one of the 13 new pieces; often very good, in some cases surprisingly unspectacular. […] Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter last showed themselves to be so variable and narrative on their second work “Discovery” from 2001. […] It is much nicer that the two French - and that goes in the direction of their best record, "Discovery" - are back on an expedition course. Even if towards the past. They still act as if they consisted only of circuits, as if they came from space and brought us strange sounds with them. But the best of these sounds, and Daft Punk admit this with this record, come from: from the older living specimens of the genus Homo Sapiens. "

- Extract from the review of the German Rolling Stone

For the weekly magazine Stern in the person of Verena Schurr, the record established Daft Punk's position as the “heavyweight of the music scene”.

“The result is 13 tracks with groovy, catchy but sometimes also a bit long moments. We'll see whether Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories' will be as big a hit as in 2001 with their album 'Discovery', which has sold millions of times. "

- Extract from the star's article

The editorial team of the German website Plattentests.de pays tribute to the union of Prog, Disco, Funk, Soul and House, as well as the homage to the old masters. She also positively highlights the majority of the guest musicians, especially the participation of guitarist Nile Rodgers.

“Is the new Daft Punk going to set the style again?” One often asked in advance in view of the unprecedented pre-album advertising campaign that the French started. The answer is yes and no and at the same time it doesn't matter. 'Random access memories' lives from the analogue sound, from the fact that the drums are played and not programmed, from soul in discoid funk, from the inspired breath of the 70s. […] For eight years, Daft Punk worked on laying veins like drains to the organs of the robots. Now the heart is pumping in French. The pacemaker says merci. "

- Extract from the review by Plattentests.de

A large number of other German internet platforms also rated Random Access Memories as successful, CD-Revaluations.de describes the album as an "adventurous journey through time through the history of music" and Mauricio Quinones from CDstarts.de says that the work certainly lives up to its hype . The Laut.de e-zine had two of its editors argue against each other and accordingly rated it comparatively moderate with three out of five stars, but listed it as the eighth best album of the year in its Best of 2013 ranking.

The album was therefore to be found in many lists of the “best albums of the year”. The music magazine Rolling Stone listed the record as the third best album of the year, Spin at number 19 on their list of the 50 best albums, the New Musical Express at number 6, Pitchfork at number 7 and the music department of Complex Magazine as the ninth best album.

Commercial win

The album entered the charts in a large number of European countries, including Great Britain , the German-speaking countries, as well as their home country France , where it was certified platinum within a week . In addition, Random Access Memories was able to secure the top position in Mexico , Australia , New Zealand , Canada and the USA . In Germany the album received the gold record in July, in the United States it was sold over 600,000 times (as of July 3, 2013).

In the first week alone, over a million copies of the album were sold worldwide, at the end of the year it was number 5 of the most successful albums of the year with 3.2 million units sold.

In 2013 it was the best-selling album of the year in the German iTunes Store .

Awards

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	2 × platinum	140,000
Belgium (BEA)	platinum	30,000
Denmark (IFPI)	gold	10,000
Germany (BVMI)	platinum	200,000
Finland (IFPI)	gold	17,178
France (SNEP)	diamond	500,000
Ireland (IRMA)	platinum	15,000
Italy (FIMI)	2 × platinum	100,000
Japan (RIAJ)	gold	100,000
Canada (MC)	2 × platinum	160,000
Mexico (AMPROFON)	5 × gold	150,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	platinum	15,000
Austria (IFPI)	platinum	15,000
Poland (ZPAV)	2 × platinum	20,000
Sweden (IFPI)	platinum	40,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	platinum	20,000
Spain (Promusicae)	gold	20,000
United States (RIAA)	platinum	1,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	platinum	300,000
All in all	5 × gold 19 × platinum 1 × diamond	2,852,178

Main article: Daft Punk / Music Sales Awards

In addition, the album won several Grammys at the 2014 Grammy Awards . It won in the categories Best Dance / Electronica Album , Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and also in the category Album of the Year . The single Get Lucky , which was recorded together with Pharrell Williams , was also awarded the Best Pop Duo / Group Performance and Record of the Year .

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Daft Punk Album Breaks Streaming Record Time Online, May 27, 2013
2. ^ Felix Bayer: The fabulous robot boys Spiegel Online, May 6, 2013
3. ^ ^{A b} Jonah Weiner: Daft Punk Reveal Secrets of New Album - Exclusive Rolling Stone, April 13, 2013 (accessed September 25, 2013)
4. ↑ Nick Stevenson: Random Access Memories' review ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Mixmag, April 30, 2013 (accessed September 25, 2013) 
5. ↑ Erwan Perron: Daft Punk, interview-fleuve pour la sortie de Random Access Memories (French) May 7, 2013 (accessed September 25, 2013)
6. ↑ Daft Punk | Random Access Memories | The Collaborators: Giorgio Moroder (A Series by The Creators Project), interview with G. Moroder, from 5'34 ″, accessed December 7, 2013
7. ↑ Giorgio Moroder Recorded With Daft Punk URB (accessed December 7, 2013)
8. ↑ Ryan Dombal: Cover Story - Daft Punk Pitchfork, May 14, 2013 (accessed December 7, 2013)
9. ↑ Fabian Soethof: Daft Punk: Random Access Memories in Japan with bonus track "Horizon" Musikexpress, May 22, 2013
10. ^ Critic Review- Random Access Memories Metacritic (accessed September 26, 2013)
11. ↑ Felix Bayer: New Daft-Punk-Album: The fabulous Robot Boys Spiegel Online , May 6, 2013 (accessed September 26, 2013)
12. ↑ Sassan Niasseri: Review of the sound carrier. In: Rolling Stone , May 14, 2013 (accessed September 26, 2013)
13. ↑ Verena Schurr: Random Access Memories: Daft Punk brings out new album . In: Stern , May 16, 2013 (accessed September 27, 2013)
14. ↑ Stephan Müller: Review of the audio carrier Plattentests.de (accessed on September 26, 2013)
15. ↑ Review of the CD-Ratings, May 21, 2013 (accessed on September 26, 2013)
16. ↑ Mauricio Quinones: Review of the CDstarts.de sound carrier (accessed on September 26, 2013)
17. ↑ Review of the album laut.de (accessed on March 26, 2014)
18. ↑ Best Of 2013: Die Alben des Jahres Laut.de, December 6, 2013 (accessed March 26, 2014)
19. ↑ 50 Best Albums of 2013 Rolling Stone, December 2, 2013 (accessed December 4, 2013)
20. ↑ SPIN′s 50 Best Albums of 2013 Spin, December 2, 2013 (accessed December 5, 2013)
21. ↑ NME's 50 Best Albums Of 2013 New Musical Express (accessed December 5, 2013)
22. ↑ The Top 50 Albums of 2013 Pitchfork (accessed March 26, 2014)
23. ↑ The Best Albums of 2013 (So Far) complex.com (accessed December 5, 2013)
24. ↑ Paul Grein: Chart Watch Extra: The First Six Months music.yahoo.com, July 3, 2013 (accessed September 27, 2013)
25. ^ Sarah Polonsky: Daft Punk Random Access Memories Sells Over A Million Copies In One Week . Vibe, May 29, 2013 (accessed September 27, 2013)
26. ↑ IFPI Digital Music Report 2014 ifpi.org (accessed October 3, 2014)
27. ↑ Martina Gabric: iTunes Best Of 2013: Daft Punk and Robin Thicke deliver annual bestsellers ( memento of the original from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. musikmarkt.de, December 17, 2013 (accessed December 17, 2013)