It's been eight long years since the release of Daft Punk's last official studio release, "Human After All"; an album considered by pretty much everyone, to be the duo's worst album. I won't go into too much detail on the group's history or my exact feelings on every one of their albums; but I will say that while "Human After All" may not have been as great as "Homework", or as downright amazing as "Discovery"; it had it's positive moments, and it only makes their latest album, "RAM" seem all that more impressive.
"RAM" starts of with the anthemic "Give Life Back to Music", and with the help of the legendary Nile Rogers, Daft Punk pen a tune that is not only a good start to the album, but it also states what they want to accomplish with "RAM"; give life back to music by combining the past a future together, seamlessly.
The track "Giorgio by Morodor" cements the concept with a fantastic monologue from another music legend, Giovani Giorgio. But none of this would matter if the music itself wasn't great, and "RAM" has some of the most intricate and well produced dance music I've heard since "Discovery". "RAM" also sees Daft Punk moving away from their house and techno roots and moving in a more disco and slightly prog direction.
The single "Get Lucky" is a perfect example of their disco leanings, with another contribution from Rogers. While "Touch" shows the duo's ability to make an 8 minute track interesting throughout, with a choir and a fantastic vocal contribution from Paul Williams; this is really my favorite moment on "RAM".
Truth be told, there's not a single bad song on "RAM", and while a lot of people consider the track "Lose Yourself To Dance" to be the weakest track, I'd say the track "Motherboard" is more deserving of that title. It's a good track, don't get me wrong; but It's no "Short Circuit".
"RAM" closes with three stellar tracks; some of the best the album has to offer. Starting with "Fragments of Time", which features Todd Edwards, who was also featured on my favorite track from "Discovery", "Face to Face". The song is a nice piece of soft-rock, and is the least electronic song I've ever heard from Daft Punk. The track "Doin' it Right" is more akin to what Daft Punk usually do; vocoder vocals with a great beat; Panda Bear is also featured on the track, bringing a nice human element to the proceedings. And then there's "Contact", which is an amazingly tense track, that escalates beautifully, and finishes the album on a high note.
"RAM" is another immensely enjoyable album from Daft Punk, who prove that they can still make some of the best dance music around; and "RAM" is a darn near perfect dance album.
9.8/10
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