Goodbye Daft Punk

Reflections from a Daft Punk Appreciator

February 22, 2021 will live forever in my heart as the day that Daft Punk, composed of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, split. I recently got really into Daft Punk, listening to them almost exclusively for the last couple months. It all started when I bought their Random Access Memories CD for my growing CD collection. I had known about Daft Punk, but only a few of their songs, including “Around the World,” “One More Time,” “Technologic,” and of course “Get Lucky.” 

Photo Courtesy of Esquire

I sat down and listened to the entirety of Random Access Memories in one sitting and absolutely fell in love. I could not believe I had been missing such great music my whole life. I started researching a bit more into their discography and learnt that Random Access Memories was an ode to disco club music from the 1970s. Some of my favorite songs are “Give Life Back to Music” and “Fragments of Time,” which I think do not get as much credit as they deserve because they are absolutely phenomenal. These songs are the reason that I want to go to a disco club. I started listening to more and more of their music. I listened to the Human After All album, Homework, and Discovery, and even watched their live performance of Alive 2007. I think these are all masterpieces, and I believe everyone should listen to these albums in their entirety.

Starting with Homework, their first studio album which came out in 1997, I can say that this collection of songs is the most quintessential house music out of all their albums. The songs “Da Funk,” “Around the World,” and “Alive” are my favorite on the album, and the music videos for both are works of art. Daft Punk made this whole album with equipment they had at home, making their own in-home studio which they continued to use until Random Access Memories came out in 2013.

Their next album was Discovery, which came out in 2001. This album was all based on the 1980s pop and rock music Bangalter and Homem-Christo listened to when they were kids. Every song on the album includes a sample of a pop and/or rock song from the ‘80s and ‘90s in some form or fashion. These songs are super fun and make me feel like I grew up in the ‘80s, dancing and listening to this music. My favorite songs on this album are “One More Time,” “Digital Love,” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” With this album, they also released a movie called “Interstella 5555,” an anime which features the whole Discovery album as its soundtrack.

Their next studio album was Human After All, which was recorded in six weeks and released in 2005. It was originally met with bad reception by critics for its repetitive nature and more rock core. I personally think it is one of my favorite albums by Daft Punk and the song “Human After All” is tied with “Give Life Back to Music” for my favorite Daft Punk song. After the release of this album, Daft Punk went on tour for the second, and final time, in 2007. This tour consisted of remixes of all their own songs at the time and was released on their album Alive 2007. I don’t think there’s a single bad song on that album and I think all the remixes are amazing.

We sadly will never be able to see Daft Punk live again, but we at least have their fantastic discography to come back to, because no matter what, Daft Punk’s music will be heard and remembered Around the World.