 | |
List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Astralwerks
Salesrank: 7705
Released: April 17, 2001 |
| Our Price: $15.78 |
| Used Price: $14.78 |
|
| Media: Vinyl |
|
Discovery Track Listing:
1. One More Time - Daft Punk, Romanthony
2. Aerodynamic
3. Digital Love
4. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
5. Crescendolls
6. Night Vision
7. Superheroes
8. High Life
9. Something About Us
10. Voyager
11. Veridis Quo
12. Short Circuit
13. Face to Face - Daft Punk, Todd Edwards
14. Too Long - Daft Punk, Romanthony
Editorial Review:
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
Discovery Reviews:
Simply Astonishingly Beautiful; A Downright Classic 
2009-12-16 - I started listening to Daft Punk in 2007. My first purchase was their live album released that year, Alive 2007. I thought it would be a good place to start. And honestly, other than a few nice points here and there, I hated it. I certainly could not have enjoyed it not knowing any of their songs! I realize that now, but, at the time it seemed Daft Punk was an overrated, lame dance band.
Then, in 2008, I bought their best of. Just cuz I'd found that, with dance bands, the studio albums are overlong and mucky and filler-ridden. Daft Punk certainly grew on me a bit there. Then I picked up Homework. It seemed like a good album, but it was so damn scratchy and distorted! It hurt my head after a while. But they certainly seemed interesting. Then, I picked up Discovery.
Discovery is one of those albums you come across once every few years and hate yourself for not having picked it up when it came out; Beck's Odelay, the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, and Arcade Fire's Funeral come to mind. But, compared to Discovery, those albums are filler-ridden. This one of a kind album blows my mind with each listening.
What makes it so good is that it highlights every emotion you feel, sometimes without lyrics. When you're feeling wild and want to party, you've got the cheesy disco hit "One More Time". When you feel head over your heels with a beautiful person you've just met and feel like you're about to burst with butterflies (sounds lame, but oddly, it happens), you've got "Digital Love". When you go out with that person and you are subsequently dumped, you get the beautiful instrumental "Veridis Quo", a certain album highlight. And when you feel like an absolute freak and just want to bug out, you have "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".
Every single song would be a certain album highlight on any other album out now. This is a lovely album that I look forward to bonding with these next few decades.
Fine tunes 
2009-11-27 - Daft punk did a fine work here. The texts that come with the sound make us look for the references and find good surprises. The samples of "harder, better..." are the best.
Annoyingly Stessful 
2009-10-25 - Only good song is Harder Better Faster Stronger. The rest of the album just annoys me. Too much repetitive beats and noises... it was causing me to stress out instead of getting in the zone. Didn't really take me anywhere except a loop. If you must sample the songs and buy à la carte.
One Of The Best Albums Ever 
2009-08-07 - It's not Homework. I think that is quite obvious from just listening to the first song. But just because its not Homework or even remotely like Homework doesn't mean it's bad. This album is great dance music, some of the best I've heard. Just get it, you won't be disappointed.
great companion to the movie 
2009-07-14 - remembered hearing "one more time" on the radio and found several of the videos when going through old tapes -- bought and enjoyed the movie and just had to get the cd so i could playlist it for the car and for while 'net surfing
very good techno-pop that can drag you in if you give it a chance