Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

While you're up all night dancing to Daft Punk's single "Get Lucky," please note that the full CD is available for immediate download through the library's Freegal database. Since Random Access Memories' May 20th release, the album has been in constant rotation on my iTunes playlist. I spent a long time digesting the album, a far cry from the other electronic dance music I've consumed this past year (Burial's ghostly dubstep / Kaskade's dance-floor beats). My final opinion: Random Access Memories is a stellar album, a superb mixing of disco, electronic, off-Broadway, and funk. I can see how fans yearning for the rush of Alive 2007 might find R.A.M. shocking in its pacing, but I encourage you to explore Daft Punk's latest for yourself. Here is a simple guide to the tracks to get you started:

Who is Daft Punk - In 1999, a freak studio accident turned Frenchmen Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter into robots bent on making the world dance.

1. Give Life Back to Music - I love this funky opening track. Daft Punk's signature robot vocals, "Let the music in tonight/Just turn on the music" showcase their passion for making timeless music.

2. The Game of Love - Bubbly synth-pop song with sugary sweet lyrics. It straddles a strange line between "too fast for background music" and "too slow to dance to."

3. Giorgio by Moroder - This nine minute epic gives Daft Punk a chance both to pay homage to producer Giorgio Moroder (a pioneer of dance and pop music that worked on the Top Gun soundtrack) by using interview clips as the foundation for the song, while expanding on his influence with electrifying beats on their own.

 4. Within - Another slow burner from the robots. I love everything about this track, from its haunted lyrics to its sparse piano melody. Imagine the grimy future of Blade Runner meets Billy Joel's Piano Man.

5. Instant Crush - Julian Casablancas, frontman of The Strokes, lends his vocals to this track: a radio-friendly song of forlorn love transformed by the robots' brand of electroshock therapy.

6. Lose Yourself to Dance - The second collaboration (everyone knows Get Lucky) between Daft Punk, Niles Rodgers, and Neptune's frontman Pharrell Williams, this track has it all: guitar hooks so catchy you could use them fishing and lyrics perfect for the weekend, "I know you don't get a chance to take a break this often/Lose yourself to dance."

7. Touch - All I can say is....wow. Another epic track from Daft Punk where the robots give homage to another major influence on the lives. Touch features vocals from Paul Williams, the star of Brian De Palma's film Phantom of the Paradise, the absolutely crazy 1974 musical that mixes Faust with a drag queen named Beef. This film was a major influence on Daft Punk's young lives: years later they've created a track that could fit perfectly in the film, or an off-Broadway revival, or on the biggest electronic album of the year.

8. Get Lucky - The first collaboration between the robots, Niles, and Pharell (in popularity, if not track order). From the initial Saturday Night Live teaser ads to the minute-long trailer video at Coachella, this track has spread across the world like funky wildfire...and I could not be happier.

9. Beyond - Another slow jam, with robotic R&B vocals, and a deliberate tempo that gives way to a wonderful synth breakdown near the end of the track.

10. Motherboard - A cinematic instrumental piece full of flutes, tapping drums, and synth. A great background track.

11. Fragments of Time - This song makes me think of summertime, the Pacific Coast Highway, Don Henley, swimming pools...a perfect feel-good track for the hot months ahead of us!

12. Doin' It Right - Here we go!! My personal favorite, featuring Animal Collective's Panda Bear on vocals. Those overlapping lyrics, "Doin it right/Everybody will be dancing/And we're feeling all right," those woodblocks...this is the most delicious dance track released this year.

13. Contact -An epic closer that begins with an astronaut's transmission: "As we look back at the Earth it's up at about 11 o'clock....I don't know whether that does you any good, but there's something out there." What follows is a scorching electronic track full of blazing synths and blistering drum solos.

I want to end by spreading the word about Zinio, a new e-magazine service that Pima County Public Library is launching this week! With two hundred magazines you can read for free on your mobile devices, PCs, and tablets, how can anyone not love this new service? And best of all, the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine (available through Zinio) has my two favorite robots on the cover. It is a great article that you should definitely read.

-James