(sorry for the techish review, but) Agrd that the new Daft Punk is lousy. This album sounds like it's '97/98 and the Daft Punk guys just bought their synths that acknowledged people wanted to hear resonant-filter-based sounds - from the first wave of subtractive analog filters and digitally modeled distortion. The sounds are harsh and digital. Every listen makes me think they're biting off their countrymen, M83...
There's a second dimension in that Daft Punk are doing the whole rock-on-synths bit. Besides the fact that they are late to the scene, there's no panache in their execution. Unfortunately I'm tainted - Every time I hear a guitar power chord sound that's pitched up or down only by changing the playback frequency (i.e. no sophisticated modeling, etc), I can't help but remember in 1988/89 downloading tracker songs on the Amiga and listening to demos - these underground tracks were all about the rock-vibe recreated electronically. Sure they hold a special place in my memory, but we're 15 years later. If there was some kind of nostalgic angle to their songs, I might think otherwise. I could rehash why Discovery and Homework are so great and how high they set the bar with those albums, but it's just frustrating. -Gil NB: The track Robot Rock liberally (i.e. the whole damn hook) samples from Breakwater's Release the Beast (1980), check out the original it's pretty cool.
