Why 'Random Access Memories' is a MASTERPIECE

Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” was released in 2013, and it 2021 they announced they they had disbanded - but listening through this album - it’s clear that, this was ALWAYS going to be their last album. While their 2001 album “Discovery” has a ton of samples, and comes to a head on the song “Face to Face” where they’re essentially playing like 8 different sampled as it’s own instrument - Random Access Memories mirrors that with Daft Punk sampling… humans.

I know that “Sampling Humans” sounds like a horror movie, but stick with me, we’re gonna unpack this ENTIRE album, all 14 tracks - YES 14! There’s a bonus track that you may not have heard - and see how this album is a masterpiece about love, music, humanity, robots, looking back on their career, and blasting off into new… Horizons.

Take a seat and relax, we’ve got a LOT to talk about. Let’s start from the top.

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SOURCES

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Topics Covered
Daft Punk
Random Access Memories
10th Anniversary
Breakdown
Analysis
Thomas Bangalter
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
Nile Rogers
Omar Hakim
Pharrell Williams
Paul Williams
Todd Edwards
Panda Bear
Julian Casablancas
Giorgio Moroder
Nathan East
John Robinson
Samples
Sampling
Robot Music
Breakup
#daftpunk #randomaccessmemories #musichistory

[MrSlimePDX]

My man, THIS is what I come onto the internet for. Your content is grade A, wellll-researched, knowledgeable, humourous, and fantastic. Keep up the great work.

[ambi_bambiiii]

*This* is the exact reason I wanted to fight the people who bullied me throughout school who said that there was "something wrong with me" if Daft Punk was my favorite artist. Everything they make goes SO much deeper than what the majority of people hear. I am a choir girl who was classically trained and will forever be a music nerd whose favorite genre is house music. Those two concepts seem completely opposite (human vs robot) but they actually make more sense together if you examine further (Daft Punk).

Also, it makes me feel better that they got their name from a "bully" music critic. They made something truly beautiful out of it

[Kiba]

Bro this is criminal that you don’t have millions of subscribers, this content feels like it should be paid to watch

[BLUE_OCTOBER-TRIX]

I opened for daft punk in 1997 in Chicago at a party called we are family thrown by vibonauts and dust traxx records

[ahenobarbushenocied]

I love this album so much, but I just wish we had one more record, it really took them 8 years to announce their breakup 😭😭

[blacklite]

Thanks for doing this and explaining WHY it’s a masterpiece. I feel like it’s so underrated EVEN though it won Grammys, it’s still underrated. It’s so conceptually deep yet accessible so I feel like people don’t get past the first layer.

They aren’t just playing you songs, they’re TELLING you a story through music. It’s sharing a journey

[BariumCobaltNitrogn]

They saved a lot of money when they had food catered at the studio. They told the caterer to just bring samples

[acb]

If you're going to deconstruct albums, An Evening With Silk Sonic is musical reference heaven :)

[DJAUDIO]

You made me realize that I inadvertently play Daft Punk in all of my DJ sets. When you have tracks like One More Time, Voyager, Face to Face, Get Lucky, Lose Yourself to Dance, Robot Rock, and Around the world, It makes complete sense. All party jams. Amazing video!!

[felixchi]

This is my favorite album ever, thanks so much for improving my enjoyment of it!

[EdgarRoock]

00:54 - Give Life Back to Music
04:41 - The Game of Love
07:53 - Giorgio by Moroder
10:24 - Within
11:06 - Instant Crush
12:14 - Lose Yourself to Dance
13:02 - Touch
15:05 - Get Lucky
16:26 - Beyond
17:05 - Motherboard
17:43 - Fragments of Time
19:45 - Doin’ It Right
21:03 - Contact
22:35 - Horizon

[guillaumeraux]

Biggest Daft Punk fan here (and absolutely freaking love your channel, it is always gold).
A few more cool anecdotes:

1) Horizon (the Japanese Bonus Track), uses Machine Drums at first and then transitions into organic Drums in the middle of the track.

2) I've always felt like Contact was their spaceship launching (pretty obvious metaphor) and Horizon was them floating in space.

3) Giorgio Moroder, when seeing the 3 microphones from 3 different eras in the Studio, reportedly (from his own admission) asked the sound engineer: "Who the hell will hear the difference between the 3 microphones". The sound engineer answered: "Oh, nobody! But they will." ("They" being Daft Punk, obviously).

4) Pharell came up with the lyrics from Get Lucky's hook while tipsy/drunk: he was tired from the jet lag.

5) Human After All was made in a rush (a few weeks), based on the famous dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell (Bangalter's words IIRC). It was meant to represent the fear of Technology (hence the purposeful rush in creating the album).

6) The people at NASA were reportedly super stoked to share samples with the Robots.

7/ The 1 million it cost to record RAM was self-financed by the band, so they had no obligation to release anything.

8/ They recorded the sound of a busy restaurant by placing microphones in front of the forks of a group of people and the effect of dripping water recorded on a soundstage.

9/ Give Life Back to Music is the first track for a reason:
When RAM was released, Bangalter and Guy-Man went on tour in French radios, explaining that they were tired of "Electronic Music consisting of remixes of remixes of remixes" and wanted to go back to something "more organic".

RAM is also a way to give organic material to sample for future generations of musicians: a way to pay it back.

10/ On that note, after RAM was released, Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington (the band DARKSIDE) recorded an entire Remix Album of RAM, under the name of Daft Side.
It's called "Random Access Memories Memories".

"Beyond" and "Give Life Back to Music" from them are two of my favorite all-time Daft Punk remixes:

Beyond is very Pink Floydish/trippy. An LSD trip under the milky way in the desert.
if "Pink Floyd and Daft Punk had a child", it's that song.

Give Life Back to Music is very experimental but hands-down the BEST EARGASM I've ever had.
And it's a direct reference/allegory to that "Give Life Back to Music" -> going back to a more soulful organic sound, rather than "electronic saturation".

I'd pay good money to live that first time again, but beware:

- You need to put on good headphones and close your eyes.
- Keep the volume as up as you can humanly handle.
- The first part is purposefully overly saturated.

It's normal, it's uncomfortable, it will be painful.
But you need that first part to enjoy the second.

- DON'T turn the volume down before the drop.
Go through these 2 minutes and 52 seconds of pain and discomfort.

It's worth it.
Trust me.
You'll thank me later:

[VarianNash]

Man, you really know how to break down anything and everything. And it makes me want to go back and listen to anything you cover. Thanks for doing the research and giving us a music class we didn't know we wanted or needed.

[bloodsad]

my god man, you have NO idea how long i've been waiting to see such a deep, accurate, and understanding video of this album to be made. i hope all fans of daft punk, new and old, get to experience this well thought out, and considerate masterclass of a video, as its some of the most insightful and entertaining takes on daft punk ive ever seen ♥

[ZZ-sbos]

@18:30 I was 17 a year after the release of 'Homework', and was the lone "techno" fan in a sea of rock and hip/hop fans, arguing that Daft Punk was the future of music and getting heaps of shit for the effort. Most of the bands that my friends would have claimed at the time to be the future of music were gone shortly after, and none of them, 100 years from now, will be known and remembered and will have their music still be remixed the way Daft Punk will. They will go down in musical history as one of the greatest ever, thank you for this truly excellent video on their work.

[pasi]

RAM is a absolute classic of an album and you totally matched it's greatness with your analysis!

[Wi_Fidelity]

This channel has the best music history dives I've found. Shit I've wanted to know about for years, and a ton of stuff I never knew I wanted to know.

[Painted_Owl]

RAM was completely lost on me as a kid back when it first released, but has essentially become the anthem of my life in recent times. Over the past four years, I’ve gone through this long journey of discovery, healing and self love, and RAM was something that I’ve constantly gone back to, although I never knew why. I just thought it was good music, but looking back at it now, the whole album was a complete story of what it was that I was going through. I had no idea I was playing those songs while learning to let go and love myself.

I love the album even more now. Thanks for the awesome video!

[philipmcp]

Their love of "Phantom of the Paradise" runs so deep. Referencing "legend of the Phoenix" and bringing in Paul Williams feels like a culmination of their passion for the film.

[chloemchll]

I’m only 1 song in and you’re already changing the way I understand not only the album, but Daft Punk in general, way better than I used to.

This is why I keep singing your praises for making maybe the best music analysis/history/education channel on YT.