We’re up all night to get snarky…
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[5.20]
Alfred Soto: The sonic equivalent of a first grader imitating a chicken. The most irritating part of “Get Lucky,” Pharrell proves Greil Marcus erred in prophesizing: it isn’t Justin Timberlake with the paint thinner falsetto.
[2]
Anthony Easton: Daft Punk, especially in Random Access Memories, have positioned themselves as historically minded. They seem to be most interested in the implications of curating what has previously existed, and only almost by accident renewing it. It’s not that their work sounds dated, or they are like bluegrass purists, it is a mark of their consummate skill that they do not sound dated while working the historical factor. Pharrell, though he has been performing and producing for more than 20 years, has this anxious edge of being out of fashion. The tension, between waiting for fashion to come to an artist, and to pursue fashion at a breakneck speed, would seem to be fruitful one. The (problem?) is that Pharrell is really comfortable extending an artists sound, and with the possible exception of the Neptunes, does not have much of a sound of his own. So, this weird egoless blankness, this kind of hanging around (see the “Blurred Lines” video) flips and reverses the Daft Punk instinct, and makes him more interesting than the two who are supposed to be the main drag. The interesting thing, is that with the rest of Pharrell’s best work, is that the meta-aesthetic of the studio becomes more interesting than the final result. Thinking of someone like Quincy Jones (and he is our generation’s Quincy), the meta-aesthetic was kind of interesting, but the music was more so. It might be that here, the historical nature of the production took precedent.
[5]
Daisy Le Merrer: They’re up all night to get depressed. It’s no surprise that when they could have had any of their chidhood heroes singing this, Daft Punk went to a man who, like them, hasn’t needed, or wanted, for years. They’re not dancing to escape sorrow, tragedy, pressure or constraints. They’re dancing away from the big nothing of a life without purpose. Unfortunately, nobody here sounds like they have found one in this tepid beat. For me, this is the worst R.A.M. has to offer, but it seems to have struck a chord with the happily employed and the privilege deniers of the world, who are much too happy to bask in their ennui. But as Schulz used to say, most of us are more familiar with the experience of losing than winning, and that’s why this won’t be anywhere near the hit that “Get Lucky” was.
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: Here’s what one million dollars will buy you — a soulless disco shuffle (made especially redundant by the far superior “Get Lucky”) featuring Pharrell and robo voices. Daft Punk might think computers aren’t real instruments, but I can think of many more artists making far more emotionally resonant music with just MacBooks (many of them dealing in the same time period as Random Access Memories… Kitsune continues releasing stuff like this after a decade-plus) than anything these two did in 2013.
[2]
Katherine St Asaph: “Blurred Lines” might have won the Song of the Summer battle (…or not?), but Random Access Memories is the better summer album. Jettison “Touch” and such, and it’s surprisingly warm for something made so cold: a heat mirage, sun-drunk, the stuff of lazy beach drives to wherever, leaving whenever with whomever. It’s like that Class Actress single, perhaps: listlessly sexy. Hazel Robinson said it best: “This time, the robots aren’t just feeling love: they’re going to the club, they’re understanding music as a sort of power, they’re feeling things stir deep in their circuitry, needing to mount their disc on an external device and find out about its feelings, too. … You know how Pharrell Williams kind of wants to be Prince sometimes but is a little too worried about being cool? Uh huh. And you know how Daft Punk are not that bothered about being cool within the landscape which Pharrell Williams is cool? Yep. And on this album, both parties are 100% down to fuck? Sure. Enter: this song.” “Here, take my shirt and just go ahead and wipe up all the sweat” is more visceral than it’s got any right to be — fortunately, because the come-on stops there. It goes nowhere, but hey, it’s got nowhere to be.
[8]
Brad Shoup: Sure cost a lot of money to get this cozy. We’re in the BPM range of a simple sway; I can hear 80,000 Brazilian Pink Floyd fans clapping on the two and four. And then comes the robots’ exhortation, tugging on your earlobe like an anxious child. It’s lenticular disco; this may be your stereo jam but it won’t follow you into the club. Not in this incarnation, anyway. Still, Rodgers’ touch is deft as ever, and the chord progression keeps threatening to tip this into truly immersive territory. Good music for cheap headphones.
[6]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Like much of Daft Punk’s 2013, “Lose Yourself to Dance” is an whirl through the act of flaunting it, afor-the-hell-of-it cycle through the group’s hell-yeah fantasies. I can’t say that I’mcompletely taken by the song’s beck-and-call, particularly when Pharrell’s descriptionof dance-as-desire and slinky Nile Rodgers guitar pigeonhole it as “Get Lucky2: Get Luckier”. “Lose Yourself” still works its charms on you, if not by the deftness of itsconstruction or Pharrell’s shirtless wooing, then at least by the lightness of its touch.
[7]
Mallory O’Donnell: This has been far more my summer jam than “Get Lucky,” but I don’t expect that kind of chart reaction from this. More than anything Daft Punk have ever released, LYTD is a straightforward tribute to underground disco. Shimmery intro, loping percussion, insistent guitar — it’s pure boogie. Even the vocal itself is a Paradise Garage-level sermon from the Temple of Dance, perfect for a northeastern summer that’s been cool enough that the only option is bring the heat up on the dancefloor, and “just go ahead and wipe off all the… sweat… sweat… sweat!” The characteristic vocoder ripple is the only thing that dates this and signifies it as their production. It’s such a strong, visceral body-moving track that I can’t even be sure if this gained or cost them points.
[8]
Will Adams: Halfway through I was searching for anything else that would actually make me dance instead of trudging through this slug of a song. “Lose Yourself to Dance” embodies what made Random Access Memories was the year’s most frustrating listen; in striving to prove that real bass and authentic guitar and live drums make for better dance music than the synthesized garbage of today, Daft Punk rest on their laurels and make Nile Rodgers do the heavy lifting. The result: “Get Lucky” minus a center of gravity and plus some downers. Most EDM music — as unsubtle and processed it may be — dances circles around this.
[4]
Scott Mildenhall: Potentially the song that decides whether or not Daft Punk are forever known to a generation as “those ones who did that one about being up all night.” Unfortunately for them it’s just too much work to get lost in, too slow; not making enough of such a straightforward and potentially powerful theme. In the right situation it’ll do, but it’s not going to bring the house down. It’s not “Get Lucky.”
[6]