Our weekly podcast includes in-depth analysis of the music we find extraordinary, exciting, and just plain awful, plus interviews with some of our favorite artists. This week, Editor Puja Patel and Reviews Director Jeremy D. Larson chat with Editor Ryan Dombal about Daft Punk’s 2013 Grammy-winning album Random access memories, recently reissued. They revisit Pitchfork’s Daft Punk cover story from that era and ask the question: given the duo’s breakup in 2021, how does the album sound like a final statement? And stay tuned for an interview with RAM collaborator Todd Edwards on making the album’s climax »pieces of timeat the end of the episode.
Listen to this week’s episode below and follow The fork review here. You can also check out an excerpt from the podcast transcript below.
Puja Patel: Does this album have the same success as 10 years ago for you?
Jeremy D. Larson: I was so surprised by this album when it came out. When I listened to it, I almost put it away for later because there isn’t necessarily a lot of momentum. In fact, I’d say that’s one of the things that’s aged the most about it – it takes a long time for this disc to boot. And then what he does, he kind of flies away. But listening to it now is different because you know it’s their last album. Is this a good ending for Daft Punk? Was it something that seemed inevitable but surprising? Type of. I like it as a capper, because I felt like they reached a logical endpoint.
I wish I could see that live, though, because dance music is all about bringing people together in the same space. Does it do what they wanted to do in this living space? That’s what I haven’t answered for myself listening to this record now. And this is where it feels a bit incomplete. But as part of their discography, I’m happy with this as the finale.
