May 2001

Daft Punk Discovery Virgin Records 2001

To start things off I should tell you that I love this album. After listening to Discovery almost every day for three weeks, I have come to be intimately involved with the music. This album is my secret lover - something to replace TEEvee.

I am usually critical of new music. When I listen to the songs, I often wonder what the music would sound like if another artist recorded it. Most music is given credit for depth and style because of the artist rather than any quality that the recording actually has. For example, the Grammy Award winning album Two Against Nature by Steely Dan was loved by critics, but had terrible sales. Had a new, young jazz-pop band recorded the same songs, they would have been dropped from their label. Two Against Nature won four Grammy's because Steely Dan deserved those awards for albums made in the 1970's. In the 1970's, the band was ahead of its time, but less talented bands took home the prizes.

Music stores are full of music that is loved more for the artist than for the quality of the work. Three examples (I will stop at three); Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand, and Everclear. Such is life. These artists make music like I make water: turn on the faucet - instant gratification! Rarely does one hear music that is ahead of its time.

For music to be ahead of its time, the sound, more than the lyrical message, must wait for time to catch up with it, rather than the other way around. Most music cannot be recreated without sounding old. For example, the recent swing craze opened up opportunities for bands to make old sounding music. Every 90's swing band sounded like the other. Their lack of creativity, and the narrow medium in which they worked, produced an annoying sound fit for Oldsmobile commercials.

Some music, however, is so far ahead of its time that even when imitated, the music sounds futuristic. Herbie Hancock's album, Future Shock, is one such album. Daft Punk's new album, Discovery, is living proof of that.

Discovery is a time machine back to 1983 built in 2021. In each song one hears an old sound played with a new sensibility. This is not disco music. In nearly a dozen reviews of this album, each reviewer made a backhanded comment about this album being a late 1970's throwback. What is lost in those comments is the context of the music. These reviewers forgot about Future Shock.

Hancock released FS in 1983 with a bang. MTV put the video for "Rockit" in heavy rotation. No one was making electronic music like that. For the most part, no one did again until just recently.

Discovery is very modern. The first release, "One More Time" is a terrific dance number. "Verdis Quo" is ambient joy. It is about driving home slowly from a disaster. The trance into which one falls is meant to soothe the ailing beast more than the conquering stud. Without a doubt, these songs have a stronger 2001 quality than many others on the album.

The next song, "Short Circuit," pulls you out of the comfort of the ambient dubliminal world of "Verdis Quo" and plants you in the opening credits of a cop-buddy film starring a very young John Cusack and Bobcat Goldthwaite. In this song, along with "Crescendolls," DP fuse electric sounds of the late nineties with those of the early eighties. These two songs do not have lyrics. But they do not need lyrics for their purposes.

Song by song, this album consistently and thoroughly pays tribute to otherwise long forgotten music. If anyone remembers Ken Burns' recent documentary, you will recall how the different forms of Jazz that developed in and after the 1970's were overlooked by Mr. Burns. Sure, the Marsalis brothers did save Jazz for all time (kidding) but scores of other musicians, Herbie Hancock included, were not satisfied with rehashing old standards. Jazz musicians broke off from the mainstream stage and developed acid jazz, hip-hop and electronic music.

Maybe if Burns had an opportunity to listen to this album, maybe he would have developed a greater understanding of the natural progressions in Jazz that people like Hancock were developing.

The strangest departure from the 1980's devotion is the song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." HBFS is a throbbing, pumping anthem in opposition to the devotion to the 60-hour workweek in America. Sure, by working harder may make us stronger, but, as the song goes, it is 'never over.'

Without a doubt, Daft Punk's work is over for now. The hard work and devotion to a music whose time is always coming created a terrific album, and an incentive for others to make music for people (and robot workers) in the future.