Daft Punk – Homework
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I am definitely not breaking new ground by picking an album from this French duo, but I don’t care. Every so often, you just want to eschew easy listening and nuanced lyrics, and just absorb some thumping tunes.
Daft Punk is now, for the most part, retired. Wikipedia’s page on the group lists its active years as being from 1993 to 2021. For much of those years, Daft Punk was one of the hottest and most popular electronic acts in the world thanks to its infectiously simple but catchy and pop-driven musical stylings; oftentimes, combining their beats with vocals provided by popular singers as well.
Hailing from France, the duo that made up Daft Punk are Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manual de Homom-Christo, though they typically went incognito behind cyberpunk robot-looking masks for their live performances. The pair had previously gone to the same high school in Paris and also been in an indie rock band together before going the electronic route.
Homework was Daft Punk’s first full album. It was released in 1997, and to this day, it is the only album from the group I enjoy listening to all the way through. I like some of their other music that was released after Homework, but much of it I find too pop-music driven and shiny to really dig into.
The album Homework does give you an idea of where the group was headed, with its mathematically precise beats and the earworm like quality to many of the songs. But there is still something dirty, gritty, and organic to the robotic noise of each song on this album – in a good way. It is not quite as big beat driven as the Chemical Brother’s Dig Your Own Hole that came out the previous year (a favourite of mine from the era), but it is still great.
Plus, it has almost no pesky vocals to get in the way of the music!
Cheers,
Evan
Bonus Viewing: Daft Punk – Alive 2007 (4K60 IMAX AR)