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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome, everyone, to a special episode of Dissect. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. Last week we wrapped up our season on Daft Punk. Thank you for everyone that listened. Today's episode is part two of a special miniseries of a show I do with my friend Charles Holmes called Last Song Standing, where we crown an artist's greatest song of all time after debating our way through their entire catalog in part one, a few weeks back, Charles and I covered homework and discovery. And today we are back to hit human. After all alive 2007 and random access Memories. Charles.
- [00:42]
B
Yo.
- [00:43]
A
Great to see you in studio this time in studio.
- [00:47]
B
It feels great. You know, we're cooking up some magic, some might say with the official what? Because this is. This is like a half season. We're cooking up the full length album. You know, people have been fucking asking. I've been stopped on the street. Wanna know what's funny? I'm getting stopped on the street for Last Song Standing now.
- [01:06]
A
Oh, nice.
- [01:07]
B
Like, usually they're like, pew, pew. Midnight Boys are like. I'm like, oh. Midnight boys are. And they're like, nah. Yo, what do you and Cole got cooking up? Last Song Standing. Who are the artists? I'm like, wait.
- [01:15]
A
Well, okay, we can actually reveal right here. Next season of Last Song Standing is. Drumroll, please. Say it with me.
- [01:24]
B
Tyler the recreat. Sorry, you were ready for that, Wolfgang. It's the Wolf Gang.
- [01:31]
A
Tyler the creator. Next season of Last Song Standing, a week from today, actually.
- [01:35]
B
Yes. I'm super fucking excited.
- [01:37]
A
A little behind the scenes. We just recorded episode one of the Tyler season.
- [01:41]
B
Well, but for y' all long. So you will have a lot to chew on in that first episode.
- [01:46]
A
But let's get back to Daft Punk.
- [01:48]
C
Okay.
- [01:48]
A
Again, for people that don't know, we thank Charles for this season of Daft Punk of dissect. He's the one that reinspired on this very show my love for Daft Punk. So we're here to conclude our last mini mini miniseries of Last Song Standing on Daft Punk. So at the end of this episode, we are going to crown the best Daft Punk song of all time.
- [02:09]
B
Greatest Daft Punk ever.
- [02:10]
A
So part one, homework. You picked defunct.
- [02:14]
B
What did I pick for homework that was so long ago?
- [02:16]
A
Defunk.
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B
I did pick Dafong. Yes.
- [02:18]
C
I did.
- [02:18]
A
Picked around the World.
- [02:20]
B
Yes.
- [02:20]
A
Discovery Digital Love. Some might say controversial choice. Face to face.
- [02:27]
B
Not controversial at all.
- [02:28]
A
Well, okay, let's talk to producer Justin, who was not here the last episode because we recorded remote on this show. Justin, our producer, has a coaches challenge, which means that any song that we don't select off of any of the albums this season or this miniseries, he can come in and say, hey, guys, you guys missed this song, whatever it is. So is that something you wanted to do now, Justin? Are you gonna save it till the very end of this episode?
- [02:56]
C
You guys really did some bullshit without me around.
- [02:59]
B
Last time we did fuck out of here. Everybody's like, of course you're gonna pick around the world. Of course you're gonna pick harder, better, faster, stronger. No, no, we're not.
- [03:10]
A
You mean one more time. You said around the world.
- [03:12]
B
We didn't pick one. Sorry. Yes. Either way. No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that, y'.
- [03:17]
C
All.
- [03:17]
B
We're going with our hearts in this mini season.
- [03:20]
C
I'll save it for the end because I don't want to derail it by talking about those two songs. We got some albums to jump into. I'll save it for the end, but we'll circle back. But I will be using my coach's challenge.
- [03:29]
A
Okay, this episode is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing. If you saw the band when they played at the bar or stopped mid festival to look at the stars then you're ready to embrace the haze with Hazy Little Thing. Citrusy smooth and easy to drink it pairs with nights that don't need a script Brewed with the purest ingredients for finest quality. There's a reason it's America's best selling Hazy ipa. Embrace the haze with Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing. Enjoy responsibly. Let's jump right into Human after all.
- [04:01]
B
Yes, technology. Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change.
- [04:20]
A
Daft Punk's most controversial album, Their least critically acclaimed album. I'm curious, do you like this album, Human after all?
- [04:30]
B
I'm not saying it is their best album. It might be my favorite at this point.
- [04:37]
A
That's so Charles. I love it.
- [04:39]
B
But no, here's the thing. I've been such a big fan of this season. I have been listening with the fans and I could hear some salt in your voice during the Human after all.
- [04:51]
A
Not salt, but.
- [04:53]
B
You've let the woke mind critical consensus virus taint what is honestly their most underrated album and just a beautiful project. It is probably Discovery still has a warm place in my heart. I love ram. We're going to talk about that later. But Human after All might be the daft Punk project that I return to most.
- [05:14]
A
Wow. Really? Okay, we'll make the case then. Because I like the project. I had to. I covered Daft's entire career over one season, so necessary cuts had to be made human after all. I tried to honor the concept more than the individual songs because that is the point in Daft Punk history where you can go, these robot characters are more than just a fun costume. This is when they really started thinking conceptually about what the Daft Punk robots could mean and symbolize. And it starts on human, after all. And I like the idea of human, after all, in terms of. It is a reaction to Discovery. It is everything that Discovery is not in terms of their approach, writing it and recording it in six weeks. Calling it a. What did Tomas said? It's a stone unmar. Like a unsketched stone or whatever.
- [06:08]
B
That's what I love when I read that quote, I was just like, I love that. That's the art that I love. Like, I know I usually use, like, Kanye as a. As a comparison point because it's kind of easy, because his career. You can tell Kanye maps his career off of other artists. And where do you go after My Beautiful Dark, Twisted Fantasy? You go to a Yeezus.
- [06:29]
A
Yeah.
- [06:29]
B
Where do you go after a Discovery? You go with a human, after all. And why I love this project so much is that I think we take for granted what discovery means now, where you've talked about it on the season, where it's like, Discovery came out and it had big hits. It turned them into rock stars, pop stars. But even at the time, there was pushback. It was just like, who are these guys who are singing like robots? This is cheesy. I'm hearing this everywhere. And I do love. It's the most interesting arc in any artist's career when they finally get everything that they want, quote, unquote. They become the stars, the world, Whether they accept them or reject them, the world is noticing you.
- [07:18]
A
Yeah.
- [07:18]
B
And that feeling, that is so human. No pun intended. Which is. What did I. Like, what did I wrought? Like what? Like, what has this become? Because I think after Discovery, and to me, I love that we're pairing human, after all, with alive and then Ram, because I think all of those project in different ways. Are Tomas and Guy kind of like, really trying to figure out, okay, we're these superstars now, but where's the heart? Where are the organs? Where's the beating thing in us? Because that's the most important. We're not a gimmick. This isn't just people putting on costumes. How do we make music to reflect that? And I Think because I'm in my 30s now, that's so much of what I think about is, like, all right, you build up all of these masks to survive in the world and become successful, but how can you make something unpolished that is actually more true to your core and yourself? And you don't get a project like Right Am without Human, After All. And I don't think you get, like, a Coachella performance if you don't get Human, After All.
- [08:24]
A
Yeah, we'll talk about the way. Well, ironically, we talked about this with Tyler so that people will hear that next week. But the way that Alive 2007 recontextualized the songs off Human after all is insane.
- [08:38]
B
It's cheesy.
- [08:40]
A
Like, anyone that doubts the quality of the songs just needs to listen to them live. And it's like, it makes that without those songs, Alive 2007 is just not what it is. Like, you can make a case that those songs glue that entire set together.
- [08:55]
B
In a way, they're the spine of the entire.
- [08:56]
A
Exactly. I don't think it works without it. And you needed that necessary contrast of, like, where you can see the clear connections between Homework to Discovery in terms of sound. They exist in different worlds, but they're more. The overlap of the Venn diagram is much more than a Discovery to Human, after all. And he just needed that contrast. And what I love about Discovery to Human, after all is that they are very much interested in technology, what it means to be living amongst technology as it advances in the 21st century. And discovery was a more optimistic look at that relationship where. Where Human after all, they said, was, you know, more inspired by George Orwell in 1984. And it gave you the flip side of that coin. And so in the same. I think the twisted fantasy to the Yeezus comparison is very valid in that viewing them together as two sides of the same coin, you get this complete vision of the optimistic relationship between humans and technology and then the darker side. And then, obviously, I talked a lot about this on the Season, so I'm not spoiling it. But to have that then set up what they do on RAM is, to me, I cannot overstate how brilliant RAM is conceptually in terms of, like, a punctuating statement on their career and what they said about humanity in the 21st century, just by the decisions that they made to create the album with real humans. Like, we'll get to that. But, I mean, the career arc of these guys is just fucking incredible. Four albums and a couple live albums, but, man, I don't see it like, what's a more perfect, clean discography than Daft Punk?
- [10:45]
B
But even when you think about the thematic elements of their albums, I always love that. To me, they are never overwrought. They're not over explaining anything exactly. It's almost like. Cause what I loved about listening to this season is I could intuit the story of the Alive set list, but it wasn't until you actually broke it down, where I was just like, of course. And even when you look at something like Homework, which is like these two French producers and DJs literally going back through their homework and being like, all right, what do we have to say about this? And honoring it. Discovery being a synthesis of a childhood. And be like, how it's very. And when I say, like, young in your career, I'm not talking about age all the time. I'm talking about, like, Daft Punk at Discovery was young, as daft a creation. So to me, Discovery is a synthesis of everything. It is baked into it. You broke it down so well in the season about, like, taking everything that they loved about their childhood, from the cartoons to anime to rock music, and perfectly making something that when you look back at it, you're just like, how is this so perfect? And then being. Getting a little bit farther in your career with Human, after all, and being like, what happens when we deconstruct it instead of synthesis? What happens if we just like, take a couple elements and see what happens? And then getting to ram.
- [12:11]
A
Yeah.
- [12:12]
B
And ending on a perfect note of like, it's everything about their career as Daft Punk, but it has everything about the history of not only dance and electronic music, but popular music and punctuating it with. We always were humans and we always needed other humans. We always needed other people. It's just. It's why we're fucking doing this.
- [12:33]
C
Yeah.
- [12:34]
A
It's insane. Okay, let's get to the nominations. Are Human after all. So we're going to just nominate one each on the project and then we're going to take these nominations at the end of the episode, joining the Homework and Discovery picks, we'll have a little mini Royal Rumble and that's how we'll decide the greatest Daft Punk song of all time. I'm very curious. I don't actually have one in my mind that is a favorite that's going to win the whole thing. So I'm very interested when we get there. But first, Human, after all.
- [13:03]
B
Yep.
- [13:04]
A
Nomination for you is all right.
- [13:07]
B
In my heart, I wanted. This was like a New thing once I went back to the album. I believe the track is called Make Love, which you don't seem to be a fan of.
- [13:18]
A
I like the song to be the nomination off this project, though.
- [13:24]
C
It's a.
- [13:25]
A
That's a little like hipster pick.
- [13:27]
B
But I literally put the song on repeat. I could not stop listening to it. I love how just uncomplicated this record is, how unadorned it is.
- [13:38]
A
Wait, are you picking it?
- [13:39]
B
I'm not picking it.
- [13:40]
A
Yeah.
- [13:40]
B
I just want to shout it out because it is my favorite in my heart. But I have to go with the song that I listened to before this the most, which is the title track, Human After All. We are Human after all.
- [14:02]
A
Great pick.
- [14:03]
B
Everything from the riff.
- [14:06]
A
Bra Bra.
- [14:07]
B
It is. It's like a bat out of hell. The L Like Human after all is just such a. It's a great name for a song. It's a great name for an album. To me, it is actually in that one short phrase in three words. Daft Punk gives you their mission statement for almost everything that they do, which is like. It is. I think that they are so smart that they get the inherent irony of two French producers who dress up as robots and sing through heavily processed vocals, always trying to convince you that they're actually human. And to me, the reason that I love this song, and it really did take until I was like, in my late 20s, early 30s to get this song, is that just how discordant it is, how abrasive it is. I think it does speak to, like, existence in the 21st century, where you are constantly fighting for your humanity. You are fighting for. For what it means to just be human. That can be on a level of race, gender, sex, class. But if we're talking about. In music, it could also be about, what do we champion now? We're gonna talk about this a lot. You talked about it with ram, but we're gonna talk about it with RAM as well. What happens when two artists that, in my opinion, are so influential in the full pivot to using computers and synths, and that being the. Basically the foundation of modern music, almost being scared by it, almost being like, oh, what have we wrong? Is such an interesting idea, where it's like, they're not at the RAM place yet. Where they have. They haven't done the Tron sequel yet. They haven't done RAM yet. So they're not fully aware of how do we truly pull. Pull this idea off.
- [16:19]
A
It's half baked on Human after all. But you see it also in Electroma, right. Essentially ending in the same spot. And then I think the masterpiece of Alive 2007 is when they fully landed the plane where they took you from beginning to end and created an actual arc where then I think those three pieces of human after all, electroma and alive 2007, I see them as, you know, one kind of one singular piece all pointing to the same thing. And yeah, maybe Human after all is a little under baked in terms of that theme. It still comes through. And especially I don't even know if
- [16:56]
B
it's under baked as much as I think the point of it is that it is pure emotion instead of it being so thought over and produced. Discovery is very, very produced where it's like every single song you can listen to it, there's a new nugget, there's something that you didn't notice, there's a sample that you didn't realize was a sample. It is guys being like, yo, look at everything that we can do. And with Human after all, it's almost. And with the title track especially, I can feel the frustration of making something harder, better, faster, stronger, and feeling like, oh, this is being co opted, maybe not by the wrong crowd, but almost people not understanding what they were doing. Cause like, if you don't listen to homework, you don't actually get the sense that these two guys are students of this craft, you know? And I could see when I listen to Human after all, and I listen to like Robot Rock or all of these other songs, I feel like some of the aggression of the record is that aggression of like, man, we did it the right way. We studied the masters, we always pointed towards like, who was the inspiration, who was the source. The source code, no pun intended. And nobody cares. And to me that is like the plight of the Internet. That's the plight of Daft Punk. No matter how much homework you can do, nobody gives a fuck. They just don't care. And when I listen to Human after all, it always just puts me in, in this place where I'm like, okay, as an artist, it's okay to be frustrated. Because if you're frustrated, that means you're human. It means you're fighting for something. It means you're alive. So I just love this record.
- [18:39]
A
Beautiful. I'm gonna go. My mind, it might be a Normie pick, but I'm going Robot Rock. Really? Is it either Robot Rock or technologic?
- [18:49]
B
Well, you gotta go Robot Rock.
- [19:02]
A
Robot Rock is interesting on this album because I thought forever that it was not a sample because it fits so Seamlessly into this world. That is otherwise. There's no other samples on this.
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B
I didn't realize until listening to your episode that it was a sample.
- [19:13]
A
And it's not only a sample. It is a verbatim.
- [19:16]
B
Yes.
- [19:17]
A
Straight up. Like, one of their most basic in terms of, like, they really. I mean, what I love about the song actually is that they let the sample because the sample is perfect. They allow it to be perfect without feeling the pressure to manipulate it too much. And the. The little accentuations of the synth and things that they add to it never really pull you out of it. Out of the sample. Which is, to me speaks of the brilliance of Daft Punk, where it's like they're in service of the song, not. They don't need to prove themselves with every record. You know what I mean? Like, they're. They're okay with finding that sample and allowing it, recontextualizing it through repetition and accentuation, but not overdoing it when they understand this is already perfect. We have unearthed this artifact. We're going to represent it under our brand and our sound within this world. But yeah, we don't need to overdo it. And that's. That's the right creative decision for this individual song.
- [20:14]
B
But don't you think that they perfect that on RAM as well, where it's like, RAM is almost deceptively simple.
- [20:22]
A
Yeah.
- [20:22]
B
Where it's like they don't. Where on like, Homework and Discovery they do the very DJ thing where sometimes they like, push it and like, part of it is how technical it is and showing you, like, look at everything that we're doing. Robot Rock, like, Robot Rock to me is a perfect example of like the latter half of their career of like, older artists being like, we don't actually have to like, show you.
- [20:45]
A
We have nothing left to prove.
- [20:47]
B
We don't have anything to prove. I love Robot Rock. It's so good. That was also in the running for
- [20:52]
A
me and a live version of it. Jesus. Okay, we don't need to belabor our picks, I don't think. Do we want to just move on my alive pick? We want to jump right into live.
- [21:08]
B
Touch it.
- [21:09]
A
Technologic. Oh, okay, so you're going. We're still in the human after all.
- [21:25]
B
We're still in the human after all. But this is to me, dog. This is. I don't know if part of my reason for loving Technologic is because Bus Rhyme sampled it in a song that is truly God awful. Come on. Why she trying to touchy? I was peeping it out she turned around and was trying to put my dick in the mouth
- [21:51]
A
Turn it, leave
- [21:52]
B
it stuck for matter Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it, turn it he ruins. It's so bad. That's not terrible back that. I love this song. Do I?
- [22:03]
C
I don't.
- [22:04]
B
What?
- [22:06]
C
Is it that bad?
- [22:07]
B
It's not that bad. No, no, no. It's not that bad. I remember loving this as a kid and listening to it. Now I'm just like.
- [22:14]
C
So you're just embarrassed of your former self. You don't actually dislike the song. You don't actually dislike the song. You're just.
- [22:20]
A
You feel.
- [22:21]
B
I'm never embarrassed of myself. I was listening to Fall out boy in 303. Great music.
- [22:26]
C
Fair enough. Love the drums in the. In that song. I love the way the drums switch up. I love the 808. And then goes into the Harder. I. I'm not my favorite Busta Rhymes song, but.
- [22:36]
B
Well, also, let's be clear. We don't give Bust a Buzz enough credit. I love Busta for, like, actually having, like, a second wave of his career where it was like, this was at the point where he's like, y' all thought Busta Rhymes ain't heaven no more. Come on, bro. I got. I got it in the talk. I do want to ask Busta Rhymes, though. I wish we had his number. What is his favorite dapong song? Yeah, but I'm back to Touch it Technologic. I. Why were you surprised that I picked this for the. A lot? I love this one.
- [23:08]
A
I like it, too. I mean, I especially like when they get into the bucket. Bucket, bucket.
- [23:14]
B
But, like, not.
- [23:15]
A
I mean, what I love about Alive 2007 is I love how aggressive it gets at times.
- [23:22]
B
Yes.
- [23:23]
A
You know, you think of, like, the harder, better, faster around the world remix, where they bring in that original synthesizer and it just gets fucking so grimy. And they reach climactic peaks that they. They're just not able to do on an album. Because you're combining so many elements of a song, you're also considering a crowd being there. And so you're really building up these moments and just mashing up songs for these. I mean, they have to keep outdoing themselves, which is part of the brilliance of the live 2007 is an hour plus set where, you know, essentially, once you've figured out that they're mashing up songs, how do you keep outdoing yourself? You know what I mean? And they continually do that.
- [24:00]
B
How do you marry every part of your career in a seamless way like that that narratively and thematically works, but also works as a lot.
- [24:09]
A
Because people aren't gonna think, like, oh, wow, they. They did a whole arc of Robot to Human. Like, in the moment, you're not thinking about that. You're just there to.
- [24:17]
B
But you can feel it. And to your point, I probably pick this because Grimy is the perfect example. Aggressive. I think I like grimy and aggressive Daft Punk because I think the mode that they are the most popular at Discovery. Ram. Seamless.
- [24:34]
A
Yeah.
- [24:35]
B
Just like chrome. Like, just shiny like this. Like, because they are such good producers, because they know how to sequence albums, because they know what a record needs, whether it's the single singer, whether it's the. How to modulate their voice. I. The reason I like Human, after all, the reason I love what they do on the Alive version with Technologic, is they kind of bring it back to that grimy core. These are rock. These are also, like, rock stars. These are guys who, like, love every part of. Of music. And sometimes I'm just like, damn. I just want to feel like. Like a sweaty body in a room banging my head to this shit. And I will not belabor the point, but I love the part where they
- [25:20]
A
start glitching it out.
- [25:21]
B
Yeah.
- [25:22]
A
So sick. And I think they're doing a lot of that glitching live on the boards.
- [25:28]
B
If I'm not. If. Because you've done. You've spent more time with these records recently than I have. Did you read anything about, like, how. How much they were able to do with the performance? Because it was so timed to all of the lights that were going on the big pyramid or whatever. I remember reading that, like, they did not have as much freedom as you would think. No.
- [25:53]
A
Yeah.
- [25:54]
B
But they built in a little.
- [25:55]
A
Yeah, exactly. The moments of spontaneity were built in. So they'd be like, okay, at this part of the song. We have these effects that we'll do probably a little bit differently every time. But, I mean, I think the thing that explains it the most was Thomas compared it to, like, a Broadway play where it's like you have a script.
- [26:12]
B
Yeah.
- [26:12]
A
The performance might be a little bit different every night slightly, but you're pretty much getting the same performance with some. Some details that might be different. But at that point, I don't know if the technology was quite there to do what they were doing in a truly improvisatory way.
- [26:30]
B
Yeah.
- [26:31]
A
You know what I mean? They're using early versions of Ableton Live. No one had ever really synced Light shows in that fashion. No one was using LED on that scale, so they were, like, figuring out all this shit on their own. So, yeah, I don't really discredit them for not making those.
- [26:49]
B
Oh, no, that wasn't a discredit. I'm surprised that they even built in moments where they could be just a little bit like.
- [26:55]
A
Well, that's the thing with, like. It's funny, like, when I was doing some research, you kind of forget, like, when electronic music came out, like, people questioned, like, what producers were doing, especially on stage, because some people actually do fake turning the knobs. You know what I mean?
- [27:10]
B
Yes.
- [27:10]
A
To this day, people still fake that I remember. Did you ever see the Family Guy skit? The little spoof of Daft Punk?
- [27:17]
B
Look at this old Casio keyboard from the 1980s that I found. Watch what happens when I push this demo button. Hello, Daft Punk.
- [27:29]
C
Great song.
- [27:30]
B
Here's a Grammy. Oh, you know, it's funny. Until you spoke, I did not know we were French.
- [27:36]
A
As if all they do is like, yeah, push an old sample and that's the song, you know?
- [27:41]
B
Well, I just think that was the popular conception of Daft Punk at that time.
- [27:46]
A
Yeah.
- [27:47]
B
And even what I want to shout out about the set, there's a lot of stuff going on with live music where the. Just the bottom has, like, fallen out completely with a lot of artists. A lot of artists in 2026 have to have had to, like, cancel their shows just because of low ticket sales and all this shit. And I remember being in college when the EDM boom was going crazy. We're talking about Skrillex, Denmao Avicii, and obviously, Ram, to me, was a kind of like, their statement on that. But everybody took the alive pyramid and ran with it. And they did it in a way that wasn't honoring the fact that Daft Punk, like all of their music, built a world. It worked. They thought of this as a fully formed project. And during the EDM craze, with technology improving at such a rapid pace, a lot of these shows, it would just be like lights for lights, explosions for explosions. Had. It was all aesthetics, and there was nothing under. Was just like a sugar rush. And I think that happened across all of touring. Whereas, like, there were good tours, you know what I mean? I think probably someone who quite literally stole what Daft Punk was doing was a Kanye. But he let me take, like, the Yeezus tour in the pyramid. He was like, okay, it's not just enough to design a crazy stage. What is the Story, I think with a lot of those EDM producers and everything that would come out of that, it just kind of watered down what Daft Punk actually pulled off during that Coachella set.
- [29:32]
A
Yeah, I mean, that's the. I mean, we're jumping ahead a little bit, but, I mean, that's really like. They'll never say it in interviews, but you can tell they're kind of disgusted about what was happening with electronic music.
- [29:42]
B
Yes. Yes.
- [29:44]
A
And I mean, I ram, if you really think about it, it is kind of a middle finger to all of that. You know what I mean? It is a very much a reaction to what is this thing that I love become, you know, like just the most water debt, like, you know, you think of those. How cheesy drops got so quickly.
- [30:03]
B
Yeah.
- [30:03]
A
Where it was just like build, build, build. Put a riser rising synth in there and then drop the beat. And it was just like. That's what electronic music became to a lot of people. And then you had pop musicians taking these formulas and then incorporating just pop. Terrible pop songs and melodies over terrible versions of electronic music. It just got gross really fast.
- [30:25]
B
And it's so funny that Daft Punk, at almost every point in their career would do something that maybe even if the critics didn't understand what was going on, or the world didn't understand what was going on, it would go on to be so influential and so popular, whatever they did next almost had to contend what they did before. Where it's like, there's that push and pull on discovery to human, after all. But then there's that. There's that push and pull with alive to ram, where it's just like, oh, we maybe accidentally just changed live music forever. People took the wrong lessons. Now we have to go. You know what I mean? They're like always being like, oh, we opened up. They opened up a can of worms without knowing that's what they were doing in the moment.
- [31:14]
A
Yeah, exactly. Okay, so let me give my pick. So you might need to talk me through this because I have three potential choices. Robot Rock intro.
- [31:26]
B
So good.
- [31:26]
A
I mean, just the intro alone. Robot human and then how they merge together. It's just fucking so sick. And then the drop. Talk about an actual drop. Effective drop.
- [31:38]
B
Yeah.
- [31:39]
A
Is nothing more perfect than when Robot Rock finally hits after these guys, you know, they kept the stage pretty much black, so you're kind of seeing like vague shape of a pyramid. You vaguely see Toman Gimon in the robots in the robot suits for the first time live, by the way. And then this Huge buildup. And just like what a most cathartic. Like that's in contention for the most cathartic beat drops like ever for me is that is the robot rock. It's so good. And then when they switch it to the. The oh yeah. Beat off a homework when that drops it. So sick. Okay, so that's in contention. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Live version with around the World is so good. That original stuff synth that they use to bridge that entire piece together is so sick. The way that it goes from like just barely audible to like full on distortion. Yeah, so sick. And then the other one I'm thinking about is the encore where they mash up one more time. Music sounds better with you together. The solo track for that Tomahaw did with DJ Falcon. And just like because they didn't have that for the Coachella. And so to come back with arguably one of the strongest pieces of the entire set with an encore as a new addition post Coachella, like, how many artists would actually build something so perfect as a Coachella set to then make it even better somehow with an encore. And what it means symbolically, how it really, like thread ties a perfect bow on the narrative of starting a robot. You know, the first half of the the set being technologic, Harder, better, faster, really emphasizing technology. And then, you know, using one more time. The first time it comes around as the bridge to the human human part of the the set. Then to call back to one more time again at the encore, but mashed in a totally recontextualized with Music Sounds Better with youh and combining all these songs with just the titles alone create this really powerful statement of unity, humanity, and reminding people in real time while they are experiencing live music together in a group setting, which I think is one of the most transcendent experiences you can have as a human being is enjoying music together with other people. Live to symbolically make a statement of like this being a microcosm, the concert experience being a microcosm of the human experience. And somehow conveying all of that through mashups is just like, what the fuck? These guys are just like geniuses. And then you hear Tomas speak. It's like none of this is like when you go back to interviews, like, none of this is like coincidental or arbitrary. Like, these guys were thinking very actively about this. So I made out the. I made the case for three. Did I make their stronger case? Because I can take either of.
- [35:17]
B
So here's the thing. If we're just trying to figure out when we go to The Royal Rumble. Part of me thinks that you should pick Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger so you can get it on the board. Because I can also make a case one of their biggest songs. But after hearing you say all that, I'm just like, when I think about my life and I think about the happiest times listening to Daft Punk. I've usually been outside in the world listening to Daft Punk, where it's like, I've been at a party, I've been at a club, I've been shopping. It is like they make music where I'm like. Even on the radio, I'm like, fuck. I'm outside. I'm listening to Daft Punk. And I think Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Not only is it one of the best moments from that set, but we get one of their biggest, biggest hits in there.
- [36:04]
A
You make a beautiful case. I'm going Encore. I gotta go. I gotta go to Encore, dude. Because you know what I just thought of too is because if we're trying to represent a live 2007, what it means and what the pyramid ultimately means. The way that they saved that, the pyramid itself, the panels on the pyramid could be to display full color pictures and video. Yeah. Saving that moment for the not using that capability until the very end of the show. And putting human faces of all races and ages on the pyramid over accompanying this mashup that is celebrating humanity. And I got to pick it. I'm sorry.
- [36:57]
C
Go pick it.
- [36:58]
A
Okay. I don't even know. I don't even know what to call it because the title is like fucking five songs.
- [37:02]
B
Encore.
- [37:03]
A
Encore. Let's do Encore. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and do Random access Memories. This episode is brought to you by at&t. At at&t. The iPhone 17 Pro is your summer essential. Its center stage front camera auto adjusts the frame to fit everyone into group selfies. You don't even have to turn your phone right now. @&t. Ask how you can get an iPhone 17 Pro on them with eligible trade in requires eligible plan terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change. Visit att.com iPhone for details.
- [37:37]
D
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- [39:08]
A
she's up
- [39:09]
B
all night for good fun I'm up all night to get.
- [39:29]
A
All right, we are Back to cover 2013's Random Access Memories.
- [39:34]
B
Yes.
- [39:36]
A
Do you like this album?
- [39:39]
B
Have a complicated relationship with this album. When it came out, the music was undeniable. Yeah, loved it. Loved was undeniable. There was a little bit of me because I was a little shit stir music critic trying to make a name where it was like, yo, fuck this shit. Fuck this Grammy bait ass fucking album. Of course the artists go back to the source and make respectable music that can finally win them all the aw after they've gone through all this. It was a very like I was being a pissy, I was being a little Tyler creator. But then I listened to some of the albums and the best way I can describe Ram the parts of it that I love. You've already described how they're similar to Homework but in a different way, where it's like instead of just nodding to all their heroes and where everything comes from, they are finally working with these people and they're working with humans and it's no longer them alone in a room, it's them being like, hey, we can. We can reach out to Rogers, we can reach out to Giorgio, we can reach out to all these people. The part of it that I love, though, that I think is under discussed. And these are my favorite songs on the record. Instant Crush, Lose Yourself to Dance, Get Lucky is what they do, is they're also saying, we are going to actually reach out to the artists that defined the 2000s.
- [41:14]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [41:15]
B
And that, to me, is so interesting because they take Pharrell and they take Julian Casablancas. To me say, I love the Strokes. I love. Is this it? I get all of it. Guys, we are not gonna get into Strokes debate right now. But it's funny to me that, like, the Strokes kind of represent, like, the last rock band through where that comes out at a time where I'm like, oh, rock music is on its way out, and hip hop is just going to be the dominant force. It was already a dominant force. So it's interesting to me that Daft Punk is like, okay, we want to take Julian, who represents a certain thing in music, and we want to use him in a specific way, but we also want to take someone like Pharrell. And Pharrell, to me, is speak, like is another producer, but also like a singer who represents where music had been going. So it is like Ram is not only contextualizing the history of dance music and electronic and pop music. It's also Daft Punk in a way, almost putting a bow on an era that they helped write. You know what I mean?
- [42:24]
A
Yeah, Yeah. I. I have a. Well, I love this album when it came out. I love Get Lucky from day one, even though obviously it's kind of got overplayed. There was a period where I didn't like it so much, and then I've come kind of full circle on it now, especially after doing the season.
- [42:44]
B
I love this album now.
- [42:45]
A
It's. It's incredible. I mean, even if the sonic. This just. The sound of it is not for you, I know it could kind of lean into, like, adult contemporary sounding at some. You know, sometimes, you know, a song like Touch, which I now love, but I can see people feeling like that sounds a little archaic. I mean, it's. It is a. I think it is objectively a masterpiece, whether you love it or not. The craftsmanship, just the. The sound that they were able to capture, the mix, you know, every. The details of the sonics are just so undeniably great conceptually. Obviously has so much importance of, like, a perfect bow thematically to the concept of Daft Punk and the robots. Obviously, you already mentioned working with real humans being a pretty. Pretty firm statement, specifically coming from Them. I think what I loved about understanding more about their thematic arc or their career is that what better and more genius way to use two robot characters that you probably didn't think this far ahead when you created them, but now that you have created these robots that are fused with humans, what a more powerful and beautiful message to convey as a robot to remind humans why they are special. Yeah, it's so genius. It's so simple, but so genius. You know what I mean? And to make an album like RAM where the robot is yearning to be human, which then, as a listener, should remind you of the privilege it is to feel emotion. You know what I mean? And so just conceptually and thematically, this album is so brilliant to me. And then it just has like, just moment after moment, just think of just the iconic intro. Da na na. So like, imagine bringing back yourself back to 2013, only hearing get Lucky he pressed play on this album. And it's live musicians playing kind of a rock riff that then kind of mellows out into this funk groove with real guitars. And you're hearing Nile Rogers and it's like, what? Like, I think we take kind of take that for granted that you kind of alluded to it. But coming off of alive, coming off of Human, after all, especially coming after Human after all this, so dark, abrasive, at times chaotic album. To then be able to create a masterwork of studio craftsmanship is just like. It's so. It's so beautiful.
- [45:21]
B
So also when craftsmanship, not to be like an old man about it, but, like, was dying. Yeah, I think it's. It's so funny when you think about Discovery, because Discovery was still at a time where that's a hard record to make. And I am not talking about, like, how do you come up. It's hard to come up with the ideas. That's the hardest part. But even just like programming.
- [45:46]
A
Right, exactly.
- [45:47]
B
And like, just what it would take to put all that together. And then very soon, technology just, like democratizes. Yeah, everything. So you're getting. And at that time, streaming is becoming more available in the Internet. So everything, as everything becomes quote, unquote, easier were assaulted with more music. And the thing that made Daft Punk special or unique is no longer unique. Because when you think about Discovery, it's the dawn of the Internet very, very quickly. Humans adapt. So we get Spotify or you get Napster. So we have all of our. Not all, but most of recorded history at our fingertips. So everybody's starting to mash up songs. Everybody showing like, oh, you didn't think I was into this? Let me show you how this connects to this. So almost the only way for Daft Punk to send off their career is to be like, we're gonna do the hardest thing what most people can't.
- [46:47]
A
Yeah. And which we have never done before, by the way. They were learning on the fly somehow, you know what I mean? Like, they didn't. They never recorded in the studio, they never mixed. You know, I think on Touch, they said they had over 200 tracks. Cause of the orchestra and everything like that. So they're learning on the fly and obviously create a masterpiece while doing it. But I mean, to your point, I mean, yeah, it's like. It's kind of like what we're facing with AI right now, where it's like, the temptation of AI is so great because it makes so many things, quote, unquote, easy.
- [47:16]
B
Yeah.
- [47:17]
A
In the same way that making music on a laptop, well. Oh, all of a sudden I can sequence an entire track on very easily by copying, pasting these parts together, rather than sequencing it manually on a drum machine, then sequencing a sampler. You know, there's all these steps that you just skip. But what people don't realize is that just like AI, when you're skipping the steps, you're also skipping opportunities for creation, for creativity. And so you're jumping from point A to point M rather than going through A, B, C, D, E, F, G. And every time, every step is like, well, what if I did this? Or what if I did this? Or. You know what I mean, where you're forced into making decision after decision were on a laptop, it just became so easy. I fell victim to this too, when I got a laptop where you're copying, pasting, or you're quantizing, oh, I played a shitty performance. Let me just quantize it real quick. Well, what does that do? You lose the humanity of. All of a sudden, your performance is robotic and there's no dynamics, there's no imperfections that make it sound alive and human.
- [48:20]
B
Even when you're sampling, it's like Face to Face is a great example of that, where it's like, everybody can sample now. Sampling is, quote, unquote, the easiest thing to do. But the beauty of sampling when you listen to a master do it is they're not just picking a great moment from the record, they're picking a moment where it's like, oh, I'm taking a second of this and I'm going on the downbeat and it's gonna go like this. It's like, AI can't do that. AI can pull out the track, but it's never gonna have the human ear to be like, I'm actually gonna pick out an imperfect part of this song and building something new around it. So with that with Ram, I'm gonna go with the most normie pick.
- [49:03]
A
Okay.
- [49:04]
B
In my heart.
- [49:04]
A
Are you going to Get Lucky right here?
- [49:06]
B
I wanted to go with instant crush, Julian Casablancas. I love his voice also. Lose yourself to dance I love more than Get Lucky. Lose yourself to dance Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on I love both of those songs more, and I think they're better songs than Get Lucky. But when I return, Get Lucky has had the same arc for me as Ram as an album has had, where I was like, oh, Get Lucky is pretty good. Oh, Get Lucky is great. Oh, get Lucky is overrated. It's one of the worst songs of all time. I never want to hear it again. Oh, get Lucky is actually perfect.
- [49:39]
A
It's perfect.
- [49:40]
B
It's like a perfect, perfect song.
- [49:43]
A
It really is.
- [49:48]
B
We're up all night for good fun we're up all night to Get Lucky. And what I love about having Pharrell sing it. Pharrell, we do not have to belabor this. He is a vibes singer, right? He is not a technically perfect singer. But the reason everybody keeps. I don't know how many, like, probably early in his career, Pharrell probably sing sang on some of these hooks, expecting, like, maybe someone will come in here and do it. But what you realize is because he's such a great producer, he just knows the vibe. And to me, get Lucky always felt like a karaoke version of a better song. But then you realize, no, this is the great song, and the repetition is the point. And to me, why I actually picked it is because I'm like, it's such a great capstone on their career because to me, it does what daft punk always did, which is they make something so hard sound so effortless. Get Lucky sounds so stupid. It sounds like I could make that. I could sing that. And then you break it down into its component parts, and you're like, no, this is really, really difficult to pull off. So it's not my favorite song off Ram, but to me, like, it's obvious why this became, like, the smash single.
- [51:18]
A
Well, it's a worthy hit song, too. It is a song that is. That is humongous but deserves to be that big. And I mean, talk about perfect endings to have your career. I mean, you kind Of I don't see RAM as Grammy bait.
- [51:34]
B
I don't see it as that either. But in that moment, because what it felt like in that moment, as someone who has little to no respect for the Grammys as an organization, historically or currently, at the time, it was like, oh, well, of course the Grammys is going to award ram, but not Discovery.
- [51:55]
C
Right.
- [51:55]
B
Right. You know what I'm saying? That's how I felt in the moment.
- [51:58]
A
Yeah. But I mean, just to have their biggest hit of their career come on their final album that then goes on to win the most. Or not prestigious, but the most, you know, album of the year. The Grammys is kind of the biggest award.
- [52:10]
B
Yeah.
- [52:11]
A
In music. So I. I mean. And yeah, Get Lucky is one of those rare pop songs that deserve. Is deserving of how big it became, you know, and which, to me, is kind of rare for pop songs. A lot of the biggest songs kind of. You're just like, this could be cheese. You know, a lot of times they're cheesy or just overly simplified or whatever. Okay. So you Get Lucky. I could go a lot of directions. I want to shout out Contact.
- [52:38]
B
Okay.
- [52:40]
A
Conceptually is just. What are we talking about, dude? Ending your career on a song in which you literally ascend 2001 Space Odyssey style, in which, like, in a. And making it so vivid. I don't know how it is for you. From day one, that song sounds like you are transcending time, space. You're just ascending into, like, liminal, eternal bliss. And how they. How they somehow created that is just. It's a masterpiece of a song. Not only that, not only musically, but also conceptually. Touch is a song that. It absolutely grew on me through the dissecting it for the season. It seems like it's a very special song to them. And I 100 get why. Having Paul Williams come on this guy that they idolized since Phantom of the paradise, their favorite film when they first met, the film that they said was their foundation for their entire artistic career. To have him come sing this very special song. And then how it transitions to that second half with if Love is the answer. Hold on. So beautiful. But I think I got to go. Georgio by Moroder for my pick. My name is Giovanni Giorgio, but everybody calls me Giorgio.
- [54:06]
B
I knew you were gonna go with this. And I usually would roast you. But after listening to this is a song that I would always skip when I was a singer.
- [54:14]
A
Oh, really?
- [54:15]
B
To the record. And then listening to you break it down. And then it just re. Contextualize it and I fell in love with it.
- [54:24]
A
It's. Yeah, I mean it's kind of same for me. Because you think it's kind of a skit because you're hearing some guy talk. And like for the first half of the song it is kind of the story, but just. It kind of reminds me of the scene in Sinners where, you know, a lot of people, some people love it, some people hate it or think it's corny. But when you know that kind of fantasy sequence when you see hip hop and funk and all these. The history of music.
- [54:51]
B
Yes, I. I got murdered for not like I'm sure.
- [54:53]
A
Yeah. It doesn't seem like something you would like, but essentially I can see people having the same issue with. With Georgio by Maroder because they essentially trace, you know, the 20th century of music in one song or even further back because it goes from electronic, you know, shout, you know, shouting out and paying homage to Georgio. My Moroder and his work with Donna Summers as the origin point of electronic music. But then it moves into rock, it moves into hip hop elements and moves into a full blown symphony and orchestra. And then somehow at the end they're combining all these elements and it's like, yeah, maybe it does. Is a few degrees away from being kind of corny sounding. But to me they absolutely pull it off. I think is 100% masterpiece. And then symbolically, you know, the reason why they're doing it is that they're essentially honoring every popular genre in American history and using Giorgio Moroder as, you know, a stand in for all the innovators. Like a Pharrell, like a Julian, you know, this entire. It kind of explains the entire album in one song and what they're doing. And then you think about how this ties back to homework and teachers, you know what I mean?
- [56:03]
B
Or even like something like Face to Face.
- [56:05]
A
Yeah.
- [56:06]
B
Where the re. Once you broke it down and I went back to it. What I also just like loved about this record is I was realized. I'm like, oh, Daft Punk is a project about innocence. Where with AI now or even before, just like Google, you have so much information at your fingertips that you think that you know everything. Or you can at least, or you could.
- [56:37]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [56:38]
B
Where? With Giorgio, with teachers, with Face to Face. What I think artists like Daft Punk used to do is. It might seem corny now, but they do what you do. They contextualize it. They're just like, hey, not only are we shouting out our teachers, we're going to show you how this part of a song that maybe you forgot, this five seconds is the most perfect five seconds ever. And we're gonna do that a hundred times. And the reason I'm so glad that you picked this is I'm like, yeah, I think we've maybe lost some of that innocence in music. We've lost some of that ability to contextualize. But because you can sample anything or interpolate anything and everybody, because we know so much, and I would say it's not just a music problem. It's like a movie problem. When I see a director and I see Mov now, I'm like, I could tell you, like, Tarantino. And it's just like. It's like a xerox of a xerox of a Xerox, where you're just like, oh, you're influenced by stuff that you just have not even watched. It's just become part of the firmament. And I just like. Yeah. When I look to your point about, like, having, like, kind of, like a perfect discography, I love that you're picking this also as, like, just kind of like an end point of their career being like, we're going to trace the beginning so we can kind of point towards a future that we would like to see.
- [58:02]
A
Beautiful. Yeah. Okay.
- [58:03]
B
All right, Cole, do you want to. Do you want to read for the audience the songs that we're taking into the Royal Rumble before we name Daft Punk's greatest song of all time?
- [58:15]
A
Yeah. So recapping the list so far, we have defunct Digital Love Human, after all. Touch It, Technologic, Get Lucky. Those are your picks. Are you. You locking those in? No regrets.
- [58:27]
B
Let's lock in those.
- [58:27]
A
Let's lock those in my list. Around the World, Face to face, Robot Rock 2007, Alive, Encore, and Giorgio by Moroder. Now we have to pivot to Justin seeing the full list. Where are we going with your coach's challenge?
- [58:42]
C
I don't know. You know what? I almost don't want to. I get one right, but I almost don't want to use it. It's like, you can't take your timeouts with you to your grave. You may as well use them in a basketball game and a football game.
- [58:56]
A
There's nothing that's really jumping out.
- [58:57]
C
Well, look, there were two songs, and I think they're the two songs that you had pegged for me, that you were almost assured that I was gonna pick one of them. Right?
- [59:09]
A
Yeah.
- [59:09]
C
And it was One More Time and Hotter, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.
- [59:16]
A
We might get shit for not taking Instant Crush, by the way, Instant Crush
- [59:20]
C
is a great song. It's not gonna be. Be the defining Daft Punk song. I love that song. And also, like, Lose Yourself to Dance. I love it. Doing it right. There are a lot of great songs. This is a great, great group. Why not either of those?
- [59:44]
A
Why not One More Time or Harder, Better? Yeah, I think you can make a case for either.
- [59:51]
B
I would put my thumb on the scale for One More Time just because that is their defining song, even if I wish it wasn't.
- [60:00]
C
Okay. I personally prefer Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. I think that's a more fun song. I think in the moment when it was. When it was blowing up in that re. Blowing up in that 2006, 2007 era that I was talking about, that kind of felt like maybe it was the one. And that could have been Kanye. It could have been. You remember the video with the girls doing the hands?
- [60:25]
A
Oh, yeah. The early TikTok, that style. Yeah.
- [60:29]
C
That is some. That's some peak whiteness. However it was. It was a thing. Speaking of viral YouTube moments, one more Time has kind of become like a generational thing.
- [60:41]
A
Yeah.
- [60:42]
C
And I think it has to be One More Time, so why can't that be the best Daft Punk song of all time?
- [60:48]
B
No, no, no. If you pick One More Time, I think I will argue for it hard. Like Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. My only problem with it, I think I said this on the previous episode. I love the song in a vacuum. Strong. Kanye's Stronger, I thought was so cool in the Moment. It has dinged Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. For me, it's just so played now that it's just hard for me to disconnect.
- [61:13]
C
All right, all right. Let's just go one more time.
- [61:15]
A
All right. I think we can make a strong case for One More Time. So is anything on the list? We got to take the easiest easy dings out first, so anything standing out on the list?
- [61:28]
B
I think we're both as. And I say this as someone who loves Human, after all, as a album, I don't think any. Either song can be in contention. Just because that's for the. That's for the. The Daft Heads. That's not for. For the normies.
- [61:47]
A
I agree. And if we're sticking to our original premise of the show, which is if an alien landed on Earth and you can hand them one song to define Daft Punk, it can't really be anything off Human after all, unfortunately. Okay, so let's eliminate Human after all and Robot Rock.
- [62:03]
B
All right. Off homework I think Defunk is the better song. I agree, and I feel so bad for being ruthless. But, like, can either song off Homework really, really contend? I don't think so.
- [62:22]
A
I would say Defunk could go farther than maybe you're giving it credit for. Around the World. I'll say, as much as I love that song, there's. We have better songs to choose from.
- [62:35]
B
Defunk would be potentially in the top five for me. Maybe we keep it on the board.
- [62:40]
A
Let's keep it on the board. I'm okay with eliminating around the World. Can a song off of a live 2007 really be in contention? I say that, but. And maybe just a quick, quick little sidebar here, because what has changed from doing the season on Daft Punk? I think Alive 2007 is my favorite Daft Punk album. My rankings go 2007. Alive 2007. Discovery homework, random Access Memories. Human after all. What is your. What is yours?
- [63:20]
B
Discovery number one. Human after all. Alive. Ram Homework.
- [63:31]
A
Homework's last. Wow.
- [63:33]
B
Yeah.
- [63:34]
A
Okay. Justin, do you have one you want to share?
- [63:37]
C
I think I go Discovery homework, then. I don't know. I got. I got Random Access Memories at the bottom. I'm a lot lower than you guys on that one, but I go human after all.
- [63:53]
A
All right.
- [63:53]
C
I'm. I'm just a little, like, putting a live album in this discussion. I understand why it's important in the context of the Daft Punk.
- [64:00]
A
Yeah.
- [64:02]
C
Discography. But I'm. I'm just always a little iffy about putting live albums or remix albums in something.
- [64:06]
B
You know, I. I agree with you, Cole, where it's like, in a perfect world. I do think that we should be something off the live, because to me, like, Daft Punk is as much of a product of electronic music and dance in terms of the context of this is music to be played and danced to. Like, they like the theme. The underlying theme of so much of their music is the human connection and of what it means to be out and listening to music together, whether you were dancing, whether you're outside, whether it's whatever. Like, that's what they love. The magazine journalist in me is just like, n. You can't pick a live album. It's just, like. Because there's too much explaining where it's like, it doesn't make sense unless you have some frame of reference for the pyramid and what Coachella meant and what it meant for Daft Punk to perform there. And you could not explain that. We always. Like, if an alien came to Earth, what would be the one Song we would have to do a lot of explaining.
- [65:10]
A
Yeah. You could maybe show them the pyramid set and be like, this is Daft Punk. And then. I get it. But plucking us into this last song standing exercise the premise of the show. One song. I agree. Maybe it can't come off of alive. So let's just. For the sake of elimination, let's just go ahead and take those off the board.
- [65:29]
B
Now, if we're talking about ram, I.
- [65:34]
A
It's tricky. It's tricky.
- [65:35]
B
I love do your dissection of Georgio. The reason it can't go far is because it is a song, but it does not have all of the elements that make dapunk great. Where it's like, conceptually, it does it conceptually, thematically, narratively, explains the entire arc of their career and of honestly, modern music. But does it work as a song that you could play for a baby? No, like, you know what I mean? In the way that, like any other dap on. Not any other, but a lot of Dapunk songs. A dog would enjoy this. A baby would enjoy this. A human would enjoy this. There's just something that works about it.
- [66:18]
A
I'll agree. I. I mean, as hard as it is to take off the board, I agree. I think whatever we choose has to be a song. Yeah. I think. I think it's a little too conceptual for this exercise. So we have defunct Digital Love, Get Lucky, Face To Face, and One More Time. Fucking.
- [66:38]
B
That's a fucking.
- [66:40]
A
The top five is fucking pretty amazing.
- [66:42]
B
All right.
- [66:43]
A
Anything jumping. I think some people would say Face to Face is the standout here in terms of.
- [66:51]
B
Face to Face is for the head. It's not for the heads. It's a huge song. But before we kick that off.
- [66:58]
A
I'm not saying kick it off.
- [66:59]
B
I'm just saying I think we're looking Get Lucky. If I'm gonna be honest, I love Get Lucky as a song.
- [67:04]
A
It can't be the one.
- [67:04]
B
It can't. It can't be. There's no way.
- [67:08]
A
Yeah.
- [67:08]
B
And I'm. I. Mostly because I've already said this. I like Instant Crush better. I love Lose Yourself to Dance. But just in terms of the project, I think the modern parts of that project. Those three songs, Get Lucky is the best.
- [67:23]
A
Right.
- [67:24]
B
Representation. But there's no way I'm picking it as Daft Punks. And I do think. I think we have to kick Face to Face and Defunk off.
- [67:37]
A
Defunk. I'm almost more fine with Face to Face, dude.
- [67:41]
B
All right, we'll keep Face to Face there. We'll keep Face to Face there. Defunct banger.
- [67:46]
A
So sick.
- [67:47]
B
It just can't. It just.
- [67:49]
A
It's a little too primitive if we're trying to be representative of Daft Punk. I mean, to me maybe this is just too technical thinking like the song that where they use like a bunch of pre made samples that come off of sample packs. I'm just like, that's not daft. I mean it is, but you know, it shows their brilliance of making something great out of something that anyone could have access to. But also.
- [68:12]
B
So you have Digital Love One More Time, Face of Face still on the board.
- [68:19]
A
Yeah. Anything jumping out to you as the strongest,
- [68:26]
B
I'll put you this way from here on out. I'm putting my foot down for Digital Love
- [68:38]
A
over one more time.
- [68:41]
B
Yes.
- [68:42]
A
Okay. Make the case for that because I think I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm. I'm thinking I need to go at bat for Face To Face. It might be the head to deep cut pick we're talking about. Daft Punk's greatest song. Face To Face is a masterpiece. It is at one of the highest achievements of the art of sampling. It's got a great message, great meaning to the. To the track.
- [69:08]
B
Oh, I love Face To Face. So before. All right, let's go to One More Time. Their biggest song, the song they are known for.
- [69:21]
A
Is it. Is it bigger than Get Lucky? I guess maybe it's age.
- [69:25]
B
I think Get Lucky is probably their biggest song now from a like a streaming in sales.
- [69:29]
A
But I actually think Legacy wise.
- [69:32]
B
Legacy wise and what more people actually probably know. Yeah, it's that One More Time is perfect, but it's. It is the normie pick. I don't even know if it's. I think Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is better than One More Time. I think Face To Face, Digital Love. I think Aerodynamic is better. Like I know it's their biggest song and if we were fucking Rolling Stone or Billboard, we would just pick it as number one so people wouldn't get fucking mad at us. But there. There's a reason we did not pick it in the episode. It just doesn't.
- [70:12]
A
Yeah.
- [70:12]
B
I don't. There's something about it that's missing for me. It's a perfect song.
- [70:16]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. As a representative song of Daft Punk, it doesn't feel like it could be it. Although it is brilliant. The sample flip is brilliant.
- [70:25]
B
It. Whoa. We are. We are right now we're arguing like if ever, if nothing can be perfect, these are to me it is the difference between, like, a 99.7 and a 0.8, and a is really where we're getting at.
- [70:41]
A
Having Romanthony on their biggest song is so fucking cool to me also, I
- [70:46]
B
think we have to just kick it off just because it's like, neither. It's. It's the. No, it's just.
- [70:52]
D
It's.
- [70:53]
B
It. Even when I go back to Discovery, I'm like, oh, this song bangs. But it's not the highest high of that record.
- [71:00]
A
Yeah, okay, one more time. It's gone. So we are now face to face with Digital Love. Make the case for Digital Love.
- [71:11]
B
There is a. There is a lot. We've talked. You've talked about it brilliantly across the entire season on this little mini season of last long Standing. We've talked about everything that Daft Punk has meant to the world, everything that their project has meant thematically. And I think if you, like, go down the layers and you just take off, like, the academic part. What is their music about? Their music is about love. And it's not lost on me that sitting in 2026 and just seeing how bad everything has gotten and seeing how technology has been twisted and growing up where I thought, oh, the. Like, I was that person. I was like, the Internet, social media, all of these things. I have access. So much of what I love about art I found sitting on a computer, being like, I never in. In no other era would I've been able to find this. And for as bad as everything has got when I listen to Digital Love, it contains everything about Daft Punk that's so special to me, which is, like, at the end of the day, you can have as many samples as you want. You can modulate your voices as much as you want. You can do all of this. You can have the best records and have the best taste and have the best drops or whatever. But the thing that we love about music is connection. We love love. When I listen to Digital Love, it just reminds me of, like, being a kid and not being able to understand why a song was hitting me, but it was hitting me because I'm like, songs does not like. It transcends language, it transcends. There's just something in your brain. It's why it's still my favorite art form. Because it's like, with movies, there still is a barrier. With television, there still is a barrier. With music, there is no barrier. A song either hits you or it doesn't. And I don't know if you could play Digital Love for anyone on this world. And it might not be their favorite song, but they could understand. Like, oh, those artists believe in love. They believe in connection. They believe that we are. While technology can help, we are more than technology. It's. It's just the beating heart of their career for me.
- [73:39]
A
Yeah. Hard to argue that 100 agree. I think understanding them more through the season and reading more interviews about them, emotion was so important to them, which is ironic because they're robots. Right. But capturing emotion specifically was like. I mean, they have a song called Emotion on Human, after all, was so important to them. Where it's like, yeah, the technology just became another tool to capture emotion and sound. And I think Digital Love, maybe more than any other song of theirs captures. Yeah. I mean, it's just trying to put it in words. You can't. Because what it is doing is exactly what music should do, which is capturing something that is. You can't capture with words. I mean, you just think of. I mean, if we're trying to just be technical about it too. I think it checks every box. Perfect sample. Yes. A catchy verse chorus, you know, something that you'd want to sing along to. Remember, you know, memorability has that innovation 100%. Like, to me, what takes this song to the next level is the guitar solo outro.
- [74:51]
B
Yeah.
- [74:52]
A
Where it's like perfect pop song. You know, atypical, but still a pop song for, you know, halfway through. And then it just flips and all of a sudden this guitar comes in, which to me is representing the love itself, and just puts on this spectacular fireworks show and sound. And you realize not only is it perfectly composed as a solo, you also cannot tell if it's a guitar or a synthesizer. You're just like. So you're hearing a sound that you. Sounds familiar, but you've actually never heard it before. Or at least not that version of it where it's like. Still to this day, people debate if it's a guitar or a synthesizer. You know what I mean? Which is so cool. And so you're talking about virtuosic display of musicianship paired with innovation and sound paired with perfect pop structure paired with perfect sample paired with capturing an emotion. It's like, what. What other boxes can you fucking check in one song?
- [75:54]
B
I mean, it's also. It's like, as we're all scared of, like, AI and what it means for creativity. And sometimes when I'm like, I get that anxiety. It's songs like Digital Love, I'm like, right, motherfucker. AI can never create that like, that's the irony of their entire career. Robot could not make this. Where it's just like they're using the artifice of something that we understand to speak to something very human, which is like, part of the human condition is that none of us feel human for a variety of reasons. There's something that is an invisible barrier that makes it hard to connect. And music as an art form is something that completely breaks that down. Yeah, it is like it is the symbol of love. It is like we don't understand what love is for. Since the beginning of time, whether it's been through books or plays or whatever, we've always been trying to really understand what is it about love that we can't understand after hundreds and hundreds of years? And I just like, what better song of the 21st century uses technology to get to that?
- [77:04]
A
Just even the title of Digital Love, the contrast there is just like. I mean, that's human, after all. Ironically, being said through digitized voices. It's that juxtaposition. It's that contrast of Digital Love. What better way to capture the human experience of the 21st century than those two words? You know what I mean?
- [77:25]
B
And how can you make something that is like. When you hear Digital Love, you're expecting something that is so cold.
- [77:30]
A
Right, Exactly.
- [77:31]
B
And so emotionless. And it's arguably the most emotional song of their career, which is also. They're funny guys, where they're just like,
- [77:40]
A
let's put one more time first on the album.
- [77:43]
B
I think we both know what we're gonna pick. Unless you want to argue Face to Face.
- [77:48]
A
I can't argue Face to Face.
- [77:49]
B
After Face is a. Technically, it's perfect.
- [77:51]
A
It's, like, brilliant. It's. I just. I wanted it to go far. Just to put any. Any skeptics about that song. We get. It's a perfect, great song because I
- [78:01]
B
think that was the song that kind of unlocked Daft Punk for you just as an adult realizing, like, oh, look at everything.
- [78:07]
A
It was one of the many, like, oh, moments of. That's what I do dissect for is like. Is the oh, shit moment of the guitar solo is the oh, shit moment of Face to Face and realizing what they're doing. It's the oh, shit moment of a live 2007 set being a narrative that moves from robot to human, from technology to humanity. And there's so many of those moments this season, even with a song like Touch and you realize. I don't think that episode's out yet, so you haven't heard it. But Touch is like they said, it's the song that all the other memories of Random Access Memories orbits around. And then you realize, oh, it's in the exact middle of the track list. And, oh, Touch is split perfectly in half to the fucking second. And you can analyze the first half and the contrast between that and the outro. It's like so many oh, shit moments. Probably arguably in the running for the most oh, shit moments of. In a single season of dissect. So I'm 100% happy with landing with Digital Love. I think it's the right choice. It's a choice that was in my heart from the start. But I'm glad we talked it out.
- [79:29]
B
I'm glad we talked it out, man. I'm like, this season was a gift to me. I'm sorry. All the other fans were like, it's Charles's fault. But like, nah, man. Daft Punk. This is listening to the episodes. You fucking killed it, bro. Like, I love it, Justin.
- [79:44]
A
Are we crazy? Daft is.
- [79:46]
C
No, this is a good one.
- [79:47]
A
Ok.
- [79:48]
C
This is. This is the. This is a good call. It's probably the right call. You know, fans can sound off.
- [79:55]
A
If you got it wrong, sound off in the comments section below.
- [79:59]
C
No.
- [79:59]
B
Hell no. They gonna kill us. They like. It was Gap Monkey. It was Instant Crush.
- [80:05]
A
Oh, hey, that's a. That's the mark of a great discography, is that.
- [80:09]
B
Oh, yeah. So many love. I'm fucking happy as shit. But yo, before we go, let's plug again, guys.
- [80:16]
A
We're back next week.
- [80:18]
B
The fucking bastards of the Ringer coming to you fucking live. Fucking last song standing. You feeling good?
- [80:24]
A
I feel. I'm very excited. I'm glad I'm here in the studio with you. We're gonna try to do everyone in the studio this season.
- [80:30]
B
And do we? The first episode, double double header.
- [80:34]
A
Bastard Goblin. So come take the journey with us.
- [80:38]
B
Hell yeah.