Random Access Memories

I drove 250 miles back from Alabama yesterday listening to the much hyped Random Access Memories album by Daft Punk. It’s not my usual style of music, but I had said that in front a friend and he sent me a copy of the disc, so I really had no choice but to listen to it. It is part Ray Lynch’s Deep Breakfast, a bit Ziggy Stardust, and predominately, somehow, 70s future disco funk. A couple of the songs, Give Life Back to Music, Contact, and, especially, Giorgio by Moroder, are extraordinarily fun to drive to. At one point I had the Mercedes well over a 100 traveling in a group of cars who must have all been listening to similarly driving beats. In a market that seems to be made up of nothing but generic teenagers with voices as incredible as they are soulless, crooning about things they don’t understand, to an army of fake social media followers, Random Access Memories was actually quite refreshing. And while I can’t say that I loved the album, I appreciated it for being successfully different and still easily enjoyable.