Pharrell's GIRL: A Recap of 2013

Pharrell's new album, GIRL, is nothing but a highly polished recap of the great year he had in 2013. And why not? The longtime musician and producer (of acts like the Neptunes and N.E.R.D.) was constantly in the spotlight with a string of smash hits and television appearances. Pharrell spent the better part of the year dominating the radio waves with the two biggest songs of the summer, Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." He continued his airwave domination the fall with his contribution to Despicable Me 2, the top-tapping hit, "Happy." This sugary sleeper hit is on constant radio rotation to this day. After listening to GIRL twice through, my simple review of the album: if you loved (or can still tolerate) the above songs, GIRL deserves your weekly Freegal downloads and a spot on your playlist. But if the thought of blurred lines and lucky robots makes you nauseous, stay far, far away from this one. Read below for some critiques of the individual tracks!

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.

Daft Punk - Get Lucky!

Daft Punk is one of those musical groups that everyone loves. And for good reason: who can resist two dance-crazed robots who fill our lives with glorious electro-disco-synthpop? As the two members of Daft Punk (French producers Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) tell it, "We did not choose to become robots. There was an accident in our studio...when we regained consciosness, we discovered that we had become robots." And luckily for us, these robots did not want to enslave the human race in a cycle of pain and misery (I'm looking at you, Skynet)...instead, they only want us to dance. With a dash of disco, a scattering of funk, a pinch of groove, and a whole lot of electro love, Daft Punk have created over sixteen years of dance hits for the world to enjoy.

And after much too long, they are back.