Amazon.com's Best of 2001: The French twosome behind Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo, get away with an awful lot. They go around impersonating aliens and robots in their interviews, they put records out only once every three years, and they make music that evokes a million other artists--while not really sounding like any of them. The keyboard noodlings of Jean-Michel Jarre are in there somewhere, along with the otherworldly imagery and giant hooks of '70s rock icons like Boston or even Electric Light Orchestra. There are dashes of 1999-era Prince and oodles of new wave and disco cheese, from Harold Faltermeyer and Gary Numan to the Bee Gees, all set off with efficient house beats. So how have they managed to position themselves as electronic music's next great crossover artists? On Discovery, the follow-up to the 1998 worldwide smash Homework, the answer is obvious: they have no shame, and they know how to make us dance.
Starting off with the irresistibly hummable "One More Time," the record blows through a head-spinning array of styles and samples, creating a pop-culture stew of funky loops and dance-floor anthems. "Aerodynamic" eschews breakbeats for an Yngwie Malmsteen-ish guitar interlude that somehow ends up meshing in a crazy blend of stomping bass lines and hyped-up harmonics. "Digital Love" starts off silly and gets sillier, but the monosyllabic lyrics lull the senses just right, allowing the song's summery groove to grab hold with authority. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a resounding standout amidst the retro/Vocoder deluge that transpired after Cher's Believe turned the kitchy disco device into a worldwide pop music trend, spinning a clever groove around an ever-escalating string of computerized seduction. Everywhere on the record, gigantic beats are dropped with pinpoint precision, giving songs a momentum that transforms repetitive melodies into sudden revelations. The record's only misstep, the aptly named "Short Circuit" utilizes a keyboard riff that is nails-on-a-chalkboard awful, but it can't keep this from being one of the best records of 2001. --Matthew Cooke
THIS ALBUM IS AMAZING OK, this (in my opinion) is the best Daft Punk album I've ever heard! It's a must buy for all of you Daft Punk fans!
Love the Daft Punk CD The CD sounded great!!! At first I thought the first song was scratched but then I realized it was a feature of the song! It's a great album!
One of the best 'disco' house cd of all time... Homework. Alive. All those were cool, esp. homework which I highly recommend. But NONE of them have the impact of discovery. People have criticized this for not being modern enough as far as electronica as a genre--but some people just don't know what they're buying or listening too. Being a fan of both disco and vocal house this was all love for me; all admirers of the genre: do not miss this album!
And I thought it couldn't get any better I've owned this album on CD and MP3 formats for many years, and it is among my top favorites. I have DJ'ed many places and songs from this album always end up in my playlists and are always a hit, no matter the crowd.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I decided to purchase this album in Vinyl. It changed the way I look at the album. Definitely one of the best, and even better in the purest format known to man.
If you haven't heard this album, you must, and if you can, hear it on Vinyl.
daft punk rocks I personally love this album. I could listen to it over and over and not get tired of it. Aerodynamic is a definate favorite followed by Harder, better, stronger, faster. Actually...I just love the whole album. And if you get a chance, watch Interstella 5555. Totally worth it, it's a cartoon (animeish) to this whole album.
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