More than even Gesaffelstein, the dance music artist that produces the most amount of ‘blue balls’ every year is likely French duo Daft Punk. Having only released four studio albums in the past 20 years, Daft Punk is also one of the most celebrated musical acts of the past two decades.
Their last album and most recent, Random Access Memories, celebrates its 5th anniversary today. The funkiest and most human of their albums, RAM is widely regarded as one of the best-sounding albums ever produced. We’re not necessarily talking about the style of music, but rather the processing and mastering that the album received after it was recorded. The warm, dulcet tones and clarity of sounds is unlike almost any other album you’ll ever hear. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 2014.
The big single from the album, “Get Lucky,” featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, also won for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the Grammys in 2014.
If you’re really craving that more robotic sound, you’re pretty much restricted to the penultimate track “Doin’ It Right,” otherwise the album is very much human.
Daft Punk released Random Access Memories in 2013, and performed for the last time in public in 2014 at the Grammys. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter have been producing music for other groups individually in the meantime, but the world still awaits their grand return to the stage and studio.
Listen to Random Access Memories once again below.