The Game of Love

Background

In 2008, after finishing their Alive 2006/2007 tour, Daft Punk began working on new material in Paris, recording demos for approximately six months. They were pleased with the compositions, but dissatisfied with their process of sampling and looping, as they had done for their previous albums. As Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk stated, "We could play some riffs and stuff but not keep it [up] for four minutes straight." Daft Punk put these demos aside and started work on the Tron: Legacy film soundtrack, which Bangalter described as "very humbling". For their next album, Daft Punk decided to work extensively with live musicians. They spoke with Chris Caswell, a well-connected musician in the industry who had previously composed arrangements for Legacy, and commissioned him to gather a group of experienced session artists to perform for the record. According to Bangalter, "We wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers, but with people." They avoided the use of samples, with the exception of the closing track "Contact".

The album features Chic frontman Nile Rodgers. According to Rodgers, the collaboration was "something we've talked about for a long time. We've respected each other endlessly." Daft Punk visited Rodgers' home for an informal jam session. Musician Paul Williams announced in a 2010 interview that he had worked with the group, after Daft Punk had been introduced to Williams by a sound engineer with whom they were mutually acquainted.

In May 2012, Daft Punk's collaboration with Giorgio Moroder was announced. Moroder had recorded a monologue about his life for use in a track on the album. Rodgers was also present during the Moroder recording session. Moroder clarified that he was not involved in the composition of the track or its use of a synthesizer: "They did not let me get involved at all. Thomas asked me if I wanted to tell the story of my life. Then they would know what to do with it." Daft Punk had been in contact with Moroder in relation to a possible contribution for the Tron: Legacy score, but this never happened.

Chilly Gonzales stated in an interview that his contribution was recorded in a one-day session: "I played for hours and they're gonna grab what they grab and turn it into whatever." He explained that Daft Punk prompted him at the piano in the same manner that a film director coaches an actor, and Gonzales left the Los Angeles studio without knowledge of what the final product would sound like. He had previously recorded a cover version of Daft Punk's song "Too Long" that appeared on their 2003 album Daft Club.

Recording

Daft Punk recorded Random Access Memories in secrecy. Recording took place at Henson Recording Studios, Conway Recording Studios and Capitol Studios in California, Electric Lady Studios in New York City, and Gang Recording Studio in Paris. Having worked with keyboardist and arranger Chris Caswell on Tron: Legacy, Daft Punk enlisted him and connected with engineers and other session players. They wanted to avoid the more compressed sounds of drum machines in favor of "airy open" drum sets of the 1970s and 80s, which they considered the most appealing era of music. They said the session players were enthusiastic about reuniting in the context of the new album and the prestige of the studio locations.

Drummer Omar Hakim recalled being asked by Daft Punk to perform on the album, and was surprised by what they wanted of him. He at first assumed they wanted electronic drum work, since Hakim had done some drum programming in his career. Daft Punk instead specified that they were looking to record Hakim performing drum riffs that they had conceived. Rather than play out the entire structure of a song, Hakim would perform individual patterns for extended periods, creating a library for Daft Punk to cull from. They conveyed their ideas to session musicians via sheet music and in some instances by humming melodies. For example, Bangalter hummed a complex drum and bass line to Hakim, who replicated and improved upon it for "Giorgio by Moroder".

Most of the vocal sessions took place in Paris, whereas the rhythm sections were recorded in the United States. The album incorporates a variety of accompanying performances including a horn section, woodwind instruments, a string orchestra and choir. Orchestral parts were recorded for almost every track, but used for only a few on the completed album. Bangalter said that the use of such performers and studios for the sake of experimentation harkened to an earlier era, and came at great monetary expense. He estimated that it had cost more than one million dollars, but felt that the number was not important. The sessions were financed by Daft Punk themselves, which allowed them the luxury of abandoning the project if they wished. Bangalter said some songs had been recorded across five studios over two and a half years. Rodgers recalled that Daft Punk aimed to create an album as if the Internet had never existed.

Various sound effects were newly recorded with the help of film experts from Warner Bros. Bangalter noted one example in which the sound of a busy restaurant was achieved by placing microphones in front of the forks of a group of people. In another instance, the effect of dripping water was recorded on a soundstage. Use of electronics was limited to drum machines that appear on only two tracks, a large custom-built Modcan modular synthesizer performed live by Daft Punk, and vintage vocoders. When asked which Daft Punk member performed the robotic vocals, Bangalter said it did not matter. Daft Punk produced most of the vocoder tracks in their studio in Paris, with later processing by Mick Guzauski at Capitol. Moroder elaborated that Daft Punk would take "a week or so" to find an adequate vocoder sound, and an additional few days to record the lyrics.

Music

Theme and influences

Bangalter said the title encapsulates Daft Punk's interest in the past, referencing both random-access memory technology and the human experience: "We were drawing a parallel between the brain and the hard drive–the random way that memories are stored." Daft Punk felt that while current technology allows for an unlimited capacity to store recorded material, the content produced by contemporary artists had diminished in quality. Their goal was to maximize the potential of infinite storage by recording a sprawling amount of elements. They connected this to the title, as they sought to make connections out of the random series of ideas.

Random Access Memories was described by music critics as a disco album. Daft Punk sought a "west coast vibe", referencing such acts as Fleetwood Mac, the Doobie Brothers and the Eagles. The record pays homage to Michael Jackson, the Cars, and Steely Dan. The recording of live synthesizers was inspired by progressive rock, with the pop sensibilities of Wizzard and the Move. Daft Punk looked to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd as models. Bangalter said "the most important records in music, whether it's Led Zeppelin [...] or The White Album or Sgt. Pepper's... or Quadrophenia or Tommy, are the ones that take you on a journey for miles and miles."

Composition

Daft Punk created demos for Random Access Memories without a clear plan for an album. Over the course of the sessions, numerous tracks were created and discarded. At one point Daft Punk considered sorting the album into one continuous track, similar to the Prince record Lovesexy. They also considered releasing it as a four-disc box set to accommodate the volume of content. The album lacked structure until the final months of production.

The opening track, "Give Life Back to Music", features guitar by Rodgers and Paul Jackson, Jr., keyboards by Chilly Gonzales, drums by John "J.R." Robinson, and vocals performed by Daft Punk using vocoders. The song reflects Daft Punk's goal to create a light yet polished and elegant record. According to NME, it begins with "a stupendously vast rock intro that obliterates any trace of Human After All's brittle techno". The following track, "The Game of Love", also features vocoded vocals. Bangalter said, "There's this thing today where the recorded human voice is processed to try to feel robotic." Their intent was to produce robotic vocals with expressiveness and emotion. "Giorgio by Moroder" was created as a metaphor about musical freedom, with Moroder's monologue about his career as analogue for music's history regarding exploration of genres and tastes. Moroder was not involved in the composition, and said that after he recorded the story of his life "they would know what to do with it". In the monologue, Moroder details the creative process behind Donna Summer's I Remember Yesterday (1977) and its closing track "I Feel Love".

"Within" was one of the first tracks recorded. It features Gonzales on piano with minimal accompaniment of bass, percussion, electric keyboard, and vocoder. "Within" transitions from the key of A minor of the previous three songs to the key of B-flat minor of subsequent tracks. Regarding the lyrics, the critic Nick Stevenson wrote, "A deep vocoder sings about not understanding the world, being lost and not even remembering his own name." Jeremy Abbott of Mixmag wrote: "So many things I don't understand is the prominent lyric and Chilly's chords combined with grazing cymbals make for a beautiful summer lullaby."

"Instant Crush" was based on a demo that Daft Punk presented to the Strokes singer Julian Casablancas; he became enthused upon hearing it and provided vocals. The song contains rock influences and a guitar solo. Casablancas noted that he ultimately combined the compositions of two separate Daft Punk demos, which serve as the verse and chorus respectively. The critic John Balfe considered the song "appropriately Strokes-ish, even if [Casablancas'] trademark drawl is fed quite substantially through a vocoder". De Homem-Christo said: "It is true that it is not his usual register, it is the way Julian reacted to the track so for us it is even more exciting." "Lose Yourself to Dance", featuring Pharrell Williams, was the result of a desire to create dance music with live drummers. Robinson appears as session player. A vocoder chant of "come on" appears alongside Williams's singing.

Promotion and release

In January 2013, de Homem-Christo revealed that Daft Punk were in the process of signing with Sony Music Entertainment through the Columbia Records label, and that the album would be released in early 2013. A report from The Guardian followed specifying a release date of May 2013. On 26 February 2013, Daft Punk's official website and Facebook page announced the signing to Columbia with a picture of their helmets and a Columbia logo. Billboards and posters featuring the helmets and logo then appeared in several major cities.

On 2 March, a 15-second television ad aired during Saturday Night Live (SNL) depicting an animated, stylized version of the band's logo and the aforementioned image of the helmets. The music featured in the ad was a result of the collaboration with Rodgers, who noted that various fan remixes of the clip appeared online after the airing. A second TV ad also premiered that was similar to the first on Saturday Night Live, but with a different music clip and the title Random Access Memories in place of the stylized Daft Punk logo. During the first night of Coachella Festival 2013, a third trailer debuted that featured Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams and Rodgers performing, as well as a list of collaborators. The trailer also aired during Saturday Night Live the following evening, but without a list of collaborators.

The gradual rollout of promotion was inspired by advertising of the past, reflecting the theme of the album. Daft Punk approached Columbia with a specific agenda for the campaign; Rob Stringer of the label recalled Daft Punk showing him the book Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip as an example of what they wanted. Bangalter felt that physical billboards are more affecting than banner ads and that "SNL is this part of American culture with a certain timelessness to it." The campaign was handled by a small group led by Daft Punk and manager Paul Hahn, with assistance from Kathryn Frazier of the public-relations firm Biz 3. The duo had pursued Columbia in particular because of its long-standing history, as expressed by Bangalter: "It felt interesting conceptually to write this story with a record company like Columbia, with a 125-year legacy."

Central to the promotion was the limiting of exposure to the album's content, as well as a focus on face-to-face contact for press previews. As Hahn stated, "There is a minimalism in our approach that creates an absence of information, and we notice our fans tend to throw themselves into the breach, or try to fill the empty spaces." Following a reported leak of the song days earlier, "Get Lucky" was released as a download single on 19 April 2013. On 13 May, a limited-time preview stream of the full album was launched via the iTunes Store. In May 2013, Random Access Memories was released on digital storefronts and streaming services.

Artwork packaging

Unlike the previous studio albums that feature the band's wordmark as the cover art, Random Access Memories is the first and only one to not do so. Instead, it features the band members' signature helmets with the album title written on the top left. The title treatment is reminiscent to that of Michael Jackson's Thriller. The image of the helmets was first revealed on Daft Punk's website, and became a recurring symbol throughout the promotional campaign.

The track titles were initially withheld from online retailers and later revealed through Columbia's Vine account on 16 April 2013, as a video relaying a series of images from the back cover of the record. On 13 May, Daft Punk's official Vevo channel posted a video revealing the artwork packaging of the vinyl version of the album, as well as the first few seconds of the opening track. Disc labels of the album feature the classic yellow and red Columbia design used on records during the 1970s and '80s, reflecting the album's theme.

Columbia released a deluxe box set of Random Access Memories containing a 56-page hardcover book, the vinyl edition, a partial 70 mm film strip of the "Lose Yourself to Dance" video, and triangle-designed gold and silver plated USB drives, which contain standard and bonus audio as well as video content, respectively.

The Collaborators

A video series called The Collaborators, directed by Ed Lachman and produced by The Creators Project, a partnership between Intel and Vice, was featured on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories website. Eight episodes were released in the series, which features interviews with participating musicians. The episodes were released weekly leading up to the album's launch. All featured album artists appear in the series with the exception of Casablancas, who would go on to appear prominently in the music video for "Instant Crush". Excerpts of the lead single "Get Lucky" appear in the opening and ending of each Collaborators episode as well as excerpts of other songs from the album, corresponding to each featured musician.

The first episode features disco pioneer Moroder speaking about his experiences with the genre such as his records with Donna Summer and experimenting with synthesizers. Moroder also talks about his visit with Daft Punk in their recording studio. The first Daft Punk track he heard was "One More Time" (2000), and especially liked the breakdown middle section. He concluded Daft Punk were "perfectionists" and described the album as "something [...] different. Still dance, still electronic; but [they] give that human touch back."

Episode two revealed that Edwards had contributed to the album; he said it was difficult keeping his involvement a secret. Edwards had previously collaborated with Daft Punk to create the song "Face to Face" on the 2001 album Discovery. He summarized his experience in the studio recording "Fragments of Time" as being life-changing, as the sessions inspired him to move from New Jersey to California on a permanent basis. Edwards also pointed out the irony of "two androids [...] bringing soul back to music".

The third episode features Rodgers, who spoke of his background as a founding member of Chic, as well as his numerous collaborations with other artists throughout his career, such as David Bowie, Madonna, and Duran Duran. He expressed that working with Daft Punk "[felt] like [...] working with contemporaries" and that they motivated each other to excel when collaborating. Rodgers played a portion of "Lose Yourself to Dance", and said Daft Punk had evolved while exploring music's past, suggesting that "they went back to go forward".

Pharrell Williams participated in the fourth episode. He discussed the organic sound of the album, saying it "feels like the only click track they had was [...] the human heartbeat". He felt that the record can be enjoyed by people of all ages due to the accessible nature of music, and concluded that Daft Punk "could just get back on the spaceship that brought them here and go, and leave us. But they're gracious, they're nice robots. They chose to stay".

Global album launch

The 79th Annual Wee Waa Show, held on 17 May 2013 in the rural Australian town of Wee Waa, was selected as the venue for the worldwide album launch. The tickets for the Wee Waa album launch were completely sold within thirteen minutes of release, even though it was widely understood that Daft Punk would not be in attendance at the launch. The launch details revealed that the album would be streamed live to the 4,000 audience members.

Sony commissioned the design and construction of a custom-built stage for the Wee Waa album launch event, and the Daft Arts production house assembled a LED circular music space that became Australia's biggest-ever outdoor dance floor. The record label described the creation, which was illuminated by a giant disco ball and complemented by four speaker towers and flood lights, as "Saturday Night Fever meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The prelude to the streaming was a pyrotechnic show provided by Father Anthony Koppman and his company "Holy Smoke" from Guyra, New South Wales.

Re-releases

On 22 February 2023, Daft Punk announced that a 10th-anniversary edition of Random Access Memories would be released on 12 May. It has an extra disc of 35 minutes of bonus content, including unreleased demos and outtakes. It includes the version of "Touch" used in the video announcing Daft Punk's disbandment. A Dolby Atmos version of the reissue was also released. The reissue contained the single, "Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo)", featuring Julian Casablancas and the Voidz. Casablancas discussed the song in interviews in 2014. Daft Punk called the track their "last song ever" in its press release. The reissue reached number one on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart and the top 10 on the Billboard 200.

Random Access Memories (Drumless Edition) was released on 17 November 2023. It includes the original 13 album tracks without drums. The re-release received lukewarm reviews, with Ben Cardew of Pitchfork writing that while some songs sound "bereft of life," the more orchestral songs "feel flush with vivid color." Jason Heffler of EDM.com gave Random Access Memories (Drumless Edition) a positive review, praising its "kaleidoscopic warmth".

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Random Access Memories has an average score of 87 based on 47 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". It has the highest Metacritic score of any Daft Punk album. Q called it "by some margin Daft Punk's best album in a career that's already redefined dance music at least twice. It is, in short, a mind blower." The Independent stated, "Random Access Memories breathes life into the safe music that dominates today's charts, with its sheer ambition ... It's an exciting journey, and one that, for all its musical twists and turns, has its feet planted on the dancefloor." Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly called it "a headphones album in an age of radio singles; a bravura live performance that stands out against pro forma knob-twiddling; a jazzy disco attack on the basic house beat; a full collaboration at a time when the superstar DJ stands alone." She concluded her review by saying that "if EDM is turning humans into robots, Daft Punk are working hard to make robot pop feel human again."

Several critics commented on the variety of content. NME said, "There's a creeping notion that every musical idea that's ever been so much as thought up is on this album." In addition, Random Access Memories is ranked No. 497 on NME's list, "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time". Mark Richardson of Pitchfork echoed this sentiment, calling the record "a mix of disco, soft rock, and prog-pop, along with some Broadway-style pop bombast and even a few pinches of their squelching stadium-dance aesthetic". Richardson praised the engineering and recording, but found that "though everything about RAM, from the session musicians to the guests to the means of production, is meant to sound more 'human,' the album at points sounds more sterile, almost too perfect." Pitchfork named the album the seventh-best of 2013.

DJ Magazine commented on the shift in Daft Punk's musical style: "While Daft Punk clearly want to move on and evolve, ditching the electronic beats, house and techno that first elevated them to fame, it's that music that forms the bedrock of their best tunes, and still, that's what they're best at making." Resident Advisor stated that "it's an album rooted in a now-ancient aesthetic", noting the influence of music born out of California and New York in the 1970s. In a five-star review, Heather Phares of AllMusic said that the record "taps into the wonder and excitement" of music from the 1970s and early 1980s. Phares concluded her review by saying, "Random Access Memories is also Daft Punk's most personal work, and richly rewarding for listeners willing to spend time with it."

Retrospective reviews

In January 2015, Random Access Memories was placed at number 9 on Billboard's list of "The 20 Best Albums of 2010s (so far)". In 2020, it was ranked at 65 on the 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list of Stacker. The same year, Rolling Stone ranked Random Access Memories number 295 on their list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2021, Pitchfork included Random Access Memories on its list of review scores they "would change if they could", adjusting its score from 8.8 out of 10 to 6.8. The Pitchfork critic Philip Sherburne wrote that it "doesn't feel pivotal in the same way that Discovery did" and "didn't push pop music forward".

Legacy

In a 2023 interview, Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows cited Random Access Memories as a major inspiration for their album Life Is But a Dream..., praising its approach to analog production and sonic experimentation. Shadows credited Daft Punk with broadening his perspective on composition and album structuring, incorporating elements such as extended instrumental sections and dynamic transitions.

Industry awards

Random Access Memories received Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. The lead single, "Get Lucky", also won for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. "Get Lucky" had previously been nominated for Best Song of the Summer at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards and Best Song at the 2013 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Sales

Random Access Memories debuted at number one on the French Albums Chart with first-week sales of 195,013 copies (127,361 physical sales and 67,652 digital sales), earning Daft Punk their first number-one album in France. The next week, it sold 49,600 copies to remain at the top spot with a 75% sales decrease. It secured a third consecutive week atop the French chart, withstanding a 29% sales drop to 35,500 copies.

Random Access Memories debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 165,091 copies sold in its first week, becoming Daft Punk's first UK number-one album and the second fastest-selling artist album of 2013 after One Direction's Midnight Memories. It remained at number one on the UK chart the following week, selling 52,801 copies. In its third week, it fell to number three on sales of 28,182 copies.

In the United States, Random Access Memories debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 339,000 copies, Daft Punk's first number-one album on the chart. It maintained the number one spot in its second week, selling 93,000 copies. In its third week, it sold an additional 62,000 copies and fell to number two on the Billboard 200. The vinyl LP was 2013's top-selling LP, with 49,000 US copies shifted. The album had sold 922,000 copies in the US as of January 2014. On 12 May 2023, it was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Following its Album of the Year win at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, Random Access Memories jumped from number 39 to number 10 on the Billboard 200 with a 300% sales increase, selling 30,000 copies that week.

Random Access Memories entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number one with 46,000 copies sold, the biggest one-week sales total in Canada of 2013. It remained at number one the next week, selling 17,000 copies. In Japan, it debuted at number three on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart, selling 25,970 copies.

Random Access Memories debuted at number one in several countries across continental Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark (where it sold 5,392 copies in its first week), Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. In Oceania, Random Access Memories debuted at number one in Australia and New Zealand; it was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) in its first week. As of 2014, Random Access Memories had sold 3.2 million copies worldwide. It received the RIAA certification of 2x Multi-Platinum on 12 May 2023.

Track listing

Sample credits

"Contact" contains a sample from "We Ride Tonight", written by Garth Porter, Tony Mitchell and Daryl Braithwaite and performed by the Sherbs, and an excerpt from the Apollo 17 mission, spoken by Eugene Cernan, courtesy of NASA.

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes.

Featured artists

Daft Punk – vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6–9, 12), modular synthesizer (tracks 1, 3, 7, 10, 12, 13), synthesizer (tracks 2, 5, 8, 9, 14), keyboards (tracks 3, 4, 5, 11), guitar (track 5), production, concept, art direction

Panda Bear – vocals (track 12)

Julian Casablancas – vocals, lead guitar and co-production (track 5)

Todd Edwards – vocals and co-production (track 11)

DJ Falcon – modular synthesizer and co-production (track 13)

Chilly Gonzales – keyboards (track 1), piano (track 4)

Giorgio Moroder – voice (track 3)

Nile Rodgers – guitar (tracks 1, 6, 8)

Paul Williams – vocals and lyrics (track 7), lyrics (track 9)

Pharrell Williams – vocals (tracks 6, 8)