Daft Punk’s new album, Random Access Memories, is now out. I love it, but it certainly is a change from their earlier efforts. Instead of being more or less pure electronica created from samples, the album features various artists playing real instruments (including Nile Rogers, who created the disco group Chic and, believe it or not Paul Williams).  My favorite song so far is “Get Lucky” the first single from the album.

Sasha Frere-Jones reviews the album in the current New Yorker. Here is an excerpt:

Daft Punk’s fourth studio album, “Random Access Memories,” is an attempt to make the kind of disco record that they sampled so heavily for “Discovery.” As such, it serves as a tribute to those who came before them and as a direct rebuke to much of what they’ve spawned. Only intermittently electronic in nature, and depending largely on live musicians, it is extremely ambitious, and as variable in quality as any popular album you will hear this year. Noodly jazz fusion instrumentals? Absolutely. Soggy poetry and kid choirs? Yes, please. Cliches that a B-list teen-pop writer would discard? Bring it on. The duo has become so good at making records that I replay parts of “Random Access Memories” repeatedly while simultaneously thinking it is some of the worst music I’ve ever heard. Daft Punk engages the sound and the surface of music so lovingly that all seventy-five loony minutes of “Random Access Memories” feel fantastic, even when you are hearing music you might never seek out. This record raises a radical question: Does good music need to be good?

Ken Tucker also reviewed the album on NPR’s Fresh Air.

Daft Punk has also released podcast with a series of short videos highlighting the various musicians who worked with them on the album. Well worth a look.

Related articles

• The best song from Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ is not even on the album (dangerousminds.net)
• Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (thetimes.co.uk)
• Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories hailed as ‘amazing’ and ‘bliss’ after iTunes stream (metro.co.uk)