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- [00:06]
Cole Kushner
From the Ringer Podcast Network. This is Dissect Long form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes Today we continue our deep dive into Daft Punk's 2001 album Discovery. I'm your host Cole Kushner.
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- [01:30]
Cole Kushner
Last time on Dissect we examined Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, the fourth track on Discovery, and the capstone to one of the greatest four song runs this century, One More Time, Aerodynamic, Digital Love, and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. As we discovered in our analysis, each of these tracks feel like its own self contained world, each with its own sound, its own rules and its own internal logic. One More Time is a groundbreaking crossover that fuses disco house and pop, complete with an unorthodox two minute breakdown and a controversial use of autotune. Aerodynamic begins like a house track before turning to a finger tapping hair metal guitar solo and closing with a baroque keyboard passage over a hip hop beat. Digital Love starts as an electro pop love song, only to abandon its vocals halfway through in favor of a surreal extended guitar solo and Harder, Better, Faster Stronger uses a vocoder to symbolize the accelerating pace of technological progress, evolving from a primitive monotone robot into a virtuosic superhuman soloist. Together, these musical worlds orbit each other like planets in a shared solar system, each one distinct and self contained, yet clearly part of a larger universal order that is Discovery. In today's episode, our journey continues through this vast and varied universe, ambitiously setting our sights on five of its tracks as we move through the album's middle section. Our voyage begins with a stop at one of my personal favorite songs on the album, Discovery's fifth track, Crescendolls. The song, titled Crescendolls, is a portmanteau that merges dolls with crescendo. The term for Increasing loudness in a piece of music, often resulting in a dynamic climax. The song generally follows this principle, beginning with a hip hop style drum beat that Thomas said evoked breakdancing. The beat is eventually paired with rapid laser like 16th notes played on a Roland TB303. The iconic squelching bass synth closely associated with Acid house. The vibe of this intro is very much in the style of early 80s electro, resembling the retro futuristic sound of Africa Babata. As Daft Punk so often do after laying out crescendo Electro inspired intro they completely subvert our expectations. The drums suddenly drop out and a sample loop enters, one that feels totally outside the soundscape we've heard so far. This loop is created with samples sourced from Little Anthony and the Imperials 1977 track can youn Imagine. Daft Punk grabbed three samples from this section of the original track, pitching all of them up one semitone Sample one is the first half of the loop. They combine this sample with two alternating endings. Here's the first and here's the second. Together, the full loop sounds like this. Relative to what we know Daft Punk are capable of, this is a fairly straightforward sample loop that stays close to the original source material. But what makes it unique is the context in which it's placed. Not only is it prefaced by that electro hip hop drum beat, but that same beat returns as its backing rhythm. An unusual pairing that you wouldn't typically hear from Daft Punk or anyone else, really. Now, what Daft Punk are doing here is pretty clever. For the first time, they've combined all the elements we've heard so far. The electro drums, the sample loop and the laser synths. And because we've heard these parts introduced one by one, our brains naturally assume this is the main section of the song, the moment where everything finally comes together. But it's not that simple. In fact, what we're hearing is still part of the build. The literal crescendo the song title is hinting at Daft Punk are in reality employing a bit of musical sleight of hand here, leading us to believe we've arrived when actually we're still being set up. And then, without warning, the real climax hits as the electro beat suddenly erupts into a punchy, pulsating bass. Heavy four on the floor House groove this abrupt shift is jarring in the best way possible, like the volume suddenly cranked to 11, revealing a climax we didn't even know we were wa. It's such an exhilarating high, a literal crescendo that lives up to the song's title, made even more impactful by the misdirection that sets it up. But Daft Punk actually have more tricks up their sleeve, because for the song's breakdown, they return to the electro beat, this time fully leaning into its hip hop breakdancing feel, chopping up the sample loop and adding in turntable scratches as if the track is being remixed by a DJ in real time. Like so many moments on this album, it's the kind of idea that sounds questionable on paper. I mean, why drop an old school hip hop breakdown in the middle of a house track? But in the hands of Thomas and Gimon and guided by Discovery's central concept of combining the musical styles they loved as kids, somehow, someway, it works perfectly. Now, I stopped the breakdown just before my favorite part of the entire song, which is the way Daft Punk transitioned from this breakdown back into the main loop. For it, they grab another sample from the same source material, the Imperial's can youn Imagine? This intense repeated chord is charged with energy, a bright accelerating burst that will propel whatever part comes after it. And here's the thing. Daft Punk saved this sample for this moment and this moment, only, using it just once in the entire song. Most producers would have taken a sample this good and reused it throughout the track, but Daft Punk hold it back, reserving it for a single perfectly timed release. And that moment arrives right here, more than two minutes into the track, unexpectedly triggered at the end of this already unexpected hip hop breakdown, propelling the song into its euphoric finale. Crescendo's supercharged finale marks the dynamic high or crescendo of Discovery's first five high Energy tracks. And as if offering a moment to catch our breath, the album continues with its calmest passage in Night Vision, a brief interlude that Thomas once described as, quote, a little bit of night or a night dream. While Night Vision doesn't contain any samples, it does seem to take heavy inspiration from the English band 10cc and their 1975 number one hit I'm Not In Love. We'll play the two back to back and notice how both feature the same gently pulsing heartbeat rhythm, the same soft rhodes keyboard, lush airy harmonies, and a very similar chord progression.
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Song Vocalist
So don't forget it. It's just a silly going through.
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Cole Kushner
Released in 1975, I'm not in Love was a ubiquitous song that found lasting success, almost certainly something Thoma and Gimon would have heard often as children. In this sense, Night Vision isn't a direct sample and not quite a cover, but something in between, a kind of hazy echo that fits perfectly within Discovery's nostalgic lens. As if I'm not in love or being heard inside a dream. It's blurry and not exactly right, but close enough to evoke the memory and emotion of the original while maintaining its own sense of identity and sequential function within Discovery's tracklist. The respite doesn't last long, however, as Night Vision is succeeded by another burst of sample charged energy in Superheroes, a song that literally launches Discovery back into orbit. The first half of Superheroes is centered around a single measure sample loop pulled from Barry Manilow's 1979 track who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? For those unfamiliar Barry Manilow was one of the biggest pop stars of the 1970s, known for his lush theatrical ballads and easy listening hits like Mandy and can't smile without YouTube. Both because of and in spite of his massive success, Barry Manilow became shorthand for a certain brand of mainstream musical corniness.
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Song Vocalist
You only knew what I'm going through I just can't smile without you within
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Cole Kushner
early sampling culture, especially within house music, there were unwritten hierarchies around what was deemed as sample worthy material. Part of being a respected producer was the curation of your sources, and few artists would have seemed more uncool or more unsampleable than Barry Manilow. Unless, of course, you're Daft Punk. Unless the aim of your album is to indiscriminately blend your childhood loves into a single project, ignoring the unwritten rules of your era. Whether that's rock, pop, classical, or in this case, soft rock. It's a less obvious subversion than the hair metal guitar solo on Aerodynamic or or even the hip hop breakdown in Crescendos. But Daft Punk's decision to sample Barry Manilow is every bit as radical, something they even had to address in interviews at the time Guimon told Melodymaker, we just don't tell lies. We liked Barry Manilow when we were younger. Too many bands want to look cool. They won't admit what they really liked. We like everything. We don't care. Turns out Daft Punk were cooler than cool, the kind of artists who understood that the rules of taste, even within counterculture, are still just rules, and that breaking them is how culture evolves. And so while the Barry Manilow sample itself is somewhat simple, a single bar loop over a house beat, the audacity to sample him was anything but. Like so many songs on Discovery, what makes superheroes Special isn't just the sample loop. It's the creative choices daftfunk make in developing it. And where Superheroes ends up going seems to be guided by the lyric Barry Manilow sings over and over, there's something in the air. Typically, this is an idiom used to suggest that something strange is happening in Manilow's song. He suspects that his partner is cheating. However, in Superheroes, Daft Punk reinterpret the phrase more literally, as if something is actually in the sky. And who exactly is in the air is implied in the song's title, Superheroes. As such, Daft Punk developed the track cinematically, starting with this lengthy eight chord progression played on a synthesizer. We're also going to hear a synth playing a barrage of notes that sound like bullets from a laser gun. Paired with the repeated phrase something's in the air, these lasers and the rich harmony of the synth suddenly transform this once straightforward sample loop into something vividly cinematic, where we can very much visualize our superheroes battling in the SK. As we just heard, Daft Punk introduced another prominent synth part. This time it's a busy, fluttering synth that arpeggiates the established eight chord progression. Arpeggio just means to play the notes of the chord individually rather than altogether. So instead of playing all three notes of a major chord at once, you play each note on its own. Most synthesizers have an arpeggiator function that automatically arpeggiates your chords for you. And you can even customize how the notes are played. They can move up. They can also go up and down like this, Or move in more complex rhythmic patterns like this. Daft Punk programmed their arpeggios to play rapid 16th notes that cascade quickly across two octaves, providing a grand, sweeping quality that, to my ears, adds to the heroism of the song's superhero theme. Now, my favorite thing about Superheroes is its ending, because, as we just heard, about two thirds of the way into the song, Daft Punk abandoned the Barry Manilow sample altogether. And the original cinematic elements take center stage. And to my ears, that's exactly how the song ends cinematically, because not only do they bring in a new heroic synth lead, they also end the song with a chord that almost certainly symbolizes that our superheroes came out victorious. It's an extremely clever and brilliant moment, and I'll show you exactly how Daft Punk pulled it off right after the break. This episode is brought to you by AT&T. ATT believes in connecting people to greater possibilities, and they do that through a network that keeps you meaningfully connected to people who are important to you. Friends, family, and more. So the moments that matter feel closer and clearer. Because it's not just about being more connected, it's about being better connected. Wherever life takes you, when the connection matters, it has to be ATT. To find out more, head to att.com connect to change @&t connecting changes everything. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we approach the ending of Superheroes, where Daft Punk first introduced a new synth lead that plays a rising, valiant, almost triumphant melody. Let's now hear this lead in the context of the song's outro, where it plays atop the arpeggiating synth and one last round of laser fire. It's as if we're watching the final battle scene in a movie where our superheroes finally overcome and defeat the villains. Now, I purposefully stopped the song just before its final chord because we need to understand the significance of what we're about to hear. And to do that, we have to dig a little deeper into the eight chord progression running throughout the song. Specifically, I want to highlight what happens at the end of the progression. So here are the first six chords. Now, the chord I just ended on is an A9SUS4, which within the context of the song's key, implies a dominant function. You might recall our discussion of dominant chords from our Digital Love episode. But to review, dominant chords create tension that sets up a resolution to the home chord. Remember, in Digital Love, that tension never fully resolves, which we connected to the song's theme of unrequited love. Here in Superheroes, we do get resolution, it's just not to the chord we expect. Traditionally, an A dominant chord resolves to a D major, the chord that gives us that feeling of completion. I'm going to play the sequence again, but this time I'll add a D major after the A dominant so you can hear that clean resolution. You could feel that sense of completion, right? The D major resolves the tension of the dominant chord that precedes it. This is what's called A cadence, but this isn't what happens in Superheroes. Instead, the A dominant resolves into a B minor chord. Minor chords tend to sound darker and more melancholic. And when we're set up for a traditional cadence, but get this minor resolution instead, it's called a deceptive cadence because it pulls the rug out from under us. We're led to believe we're going here, but instead things resolve a bit more somberly. And this is what happens in that eight chord progression. The A dominant resolves into a B minor, A deceptive cadence. Here's the full progression. You can hear how somber this sounds, right? It's certainly not the most victorious of endings, and this happens over and over throughout Superheroes. The progression builds and builds only to resolve in this slightly disappointing way again and again. That is until the very end of the song when Daft Punk finally land on a D major resolution, holding it for a lengthy eight measures. In a way, it's the inverse of Digital Love, a song whose theme of unrequited love is reflected in a progression that never fully resolves. On Superheroes, the resolution does come, but only at the very end of its nearly four minute runtime. With that in mind, let's go ahead and listen to the ending now, understanding why it feels so triumphant and satisfying. Because it's not just that the track finally lands on the home chord, it's that Daft Punk spend the entire song building and sustaining tension, saving that major resolution for a single perfect moment at the end of what feels like a cinematic experience wrapped inside of a house track, marking the moment of our superhero's hard earned victory. The end of Superheroes is another example of Daft Punk's restraint saving a single moment so it can land with maximum impact rather than diluting it through repetition. Indeed, we often think of Daft Punk as masters of loop based repetition, and they are. But Discovery proves time and again that they are also masters of these perfectly timed, expertly executed, singular moments. Now, as the album continues, so too does the theme of Skyward Flight. Because what follows Superheroes and its refrain Something's in the Air is the song High Life. Relatively speaking, High Life is one of the more straightforward tracks on Discovery, a sample loop centered track that sounds as much Homework Era Daft Punk as it does Discovery. However, the song's main loop is more intricate than it might seem at first glance. All of its samples are pulled from the same source, 1980s breakdown for love by the RB group Tavares.
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Song Vocalist
We're just people being people
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Pharmaceutical Ad Voice
trying to survive.
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Cole Kushner
There are six total chops taken from Breakdown For Love, and unlike Crescendo or Superheroes, the chops are taken from different areas of the song rather than one specific measure or two. The first chop is found in this passage at 2 minutes and 47 seconds. Here they grab just that first chord hit, then they pitch it up three semitones. The second splice comes 30 seconds into the song. Here they grab the word being and pitch it up. Chop three is Another quick chord hit, this time pulled at a minute 37 in the original track. Now the sample pitched up. These three chops make up the first half of the loop. Chop 1 is played on its own, while Chops 2 and 3 are played simultaneously, creating this sequence. Now, the gaps here are filled with two alternating responses. The first is pulled from this passage of the original sample source. Now here's the pitched up chop. The second response is a combination of two samples played simultaneously. The first is pulled from this passage at a minute 17. Now let's grab just the word strong and pitch it up. The second layer is grabbed all the way at the end of the song at 4 minutes and 5 seconds. Here we grab the word love and pitch it up together. These two chops sound like this. And now the full sequence. Now, it's unclear to me whether Daft Punk were attempting to communicate through their sample selections here, but it's at least interesting to note that they chose to sample the words survive, strong, and love, as if love were our source of strength for our survival. Perhaps a blueprint for living the high life. Developmentally, High Life is perhaps Discovery's most basic track. And so, with apologies to any high life superfans out there, we're going to move on to the final stop of today's tour through Discovery's middle section, the absolutely gorgeous Something About Us.
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Song Vocalist
I might not be the right one it might not be the right time but there's something about us I've got to do Some kind of secret I will share with you
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Cole Kushner
Something About Us is one of four tracks that contains no samples on Discovery. Instead, the song is built on an original chord progression played on a Rhodes keyboard. So there's a lot to love about this progression, and we're going to spend a good deal of time talking about it. It's soft, understated, yet emotionally potent, which has a lot to do with the harmonic complexity of the chords themselves. In music theory, the most basic chords are what are called triads, meaning they have three notes. Now, you can add notes to this basic triad to create more harmonically rich chords. I'm going to add just one note to the triad we just heard, and listen to how it changes the feeling of the chord. Here's the basic triad again. And now with an added note, it makes a difference, right? This four note chord is called a seventh chord, the fundamental chord structure in jazz music. Most of the chords in Something About Us are seventh chords, but there's a few that are even more complex. For instance, the third chord of the progression is what's called a ninth chord, which adds an additional note to the seventh chord for a total of five notes. Can you feel how rich that chord is? When used correctly, this kind of tonal complexity can create emotionally potent progressions precisely like the one used in Something About Us. Daft Punk also employ a technique called common tone, which describes when the same note is played across multiple chords in a row. In Something About Us, there's a pretty extreme use of common tone, as all eight chords contain this same a natural. Common tones can create a sense of continuity, especially when the chords themselves fall outside the expected harmony of a key. And when they're sustained over eight chords, as they are in Something About Us, they can also act as a subtle emotional anchor, giving it a pensive, introspective quality. To highlight this, I'll play the progression while exaggerating that common tone, repeating it between each chord. In the actual song, the effect is much more subtle, but hopefully that helped you feel the kind of meditative, emotional quality common tones can evoke. Now, the last thing I want to highlight in this progression is the chord sequence itself. While it's a total of eight chords long, it actually pretends to be a four chord progression. In order to create some harmonic surprises, let me show you what I mean. Here's the first four chords again. Now, as the progression continues, the next chord is the same as the first chord. And because four chord progressions are so common, we naturally assume the progression is just going to repeat itself. But this expectation is subverted with the sixth chord, when, instead of playing this chord, Daft Punk, play this one. Now, two of the three notes in this chord are the same. The only difference is that the C natural is raised to a C sharp. Importantly, this changes the chord from A minor to A major, and specifically A major dominant seventh chord, which, if you'll remember from earlier in the episode, is the chord of tension, the one that begs for resolution. And that resolution comes right away in the next chord. This subtle change from minor to dominant major makes a pretty big difference. And because we are set up to expect the minor, that difference is exaggerated because it comes as a surprise. Let's listen to the full eight chord progression again, and hopefully now you can hear how it poses as a four chord progression that's going to repeat only to surprise us with that switch. Now, I know we spent a good amount of time dissecting the nuances of this progression, but I did so to make a larger point that there are reasons why songs make us feel the way they do. And in Something About Us, so much of that emotion is carried through the harmony. The extended chords, the common tone, the bait and switch alterations, they all work together to create a harmonic language that defines the emotional character of the track. This is the essence of good composition, writing that serves the emotional experience of the music. But even the most beautiful chord progression can be ruined by a bad arrangement. And part of what makes Something About Us so effective is the world Daft Punk built around that harmony, where every element is carefully considered, all in service of preserving the intimacy, warmth, and emotional weight of the progression. The drums and bass move in perfect lockstep, providing a gentle but slightly funky groove. There's also some funky guitar plucks with an incredible Wawa effect that gives them this wet, almost liquid sound. About a minute into the track, a beautiful, ascending, harmonized synth lead enters on top of the instrumental, a part that seamlessly bridges into Thomas sung vocals.
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Song Vocalist
It might not be the right time I might not be the right one but there's something about us I want to say Cause there's something between us Anyway,
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Cole Kushner
thematically, something About Us feels like a close relative to the dreamy romanticism of Digital Love. Using a similar, subtly robotic vocal effect, Tomas sings about Something in the air. Only this time that something isn't superheroes, but rather the unarticulated feelings between him and an unnamed love interest. He expresses his desire to formalize those feelings with words, despite it not being the perfect time, and even admitting up front that he may not be the perfect match. Now, the second verse is much like the first, with a few subtle changes, the most important of which comes at the end, when Thomas sings. But there's something about us I've got to do Some kind of secret I will share with you this secret is then revealed immediately as Thomas expresses his feelings with complete and unmistakable clarity.
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Song Vocalist
But there's something about us I've got to do Some kind of secret I will share with you I need you more than anything I want you more than anything in my life I'll miss you more than anyone in my life I love you more than anyone in my life
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Cole Kushner
what we just heard is an emotional leap of faith, a moment of complete and utter vulnerability, where something deeply felt is finally spoken out loud. In doing so, two doors open with radically different outcomes, one that could be utterly devastating and one that can transform your life in the most profound way. This is the inherent risk of vulnerability, the possibility that what you feel won't be returned. But with budding romantic love, especially, those feelings are almost impossible to contain. They build and press and demand to be expressed until anything less than honesty becomes unbearable. Because ultimately rejection is more tenable than continuing to live with the weight of what if? And so, despite the risk, despite the fear, you let it out, you say the damn thing. Understanding that what may be waiting on the other side are some of the most transformative gifts the human experience has to offer connection, intimacy, and the rare, extraordinary privilege of loving and being loved in return.
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Song Vocalist
I want you more than anything in my life I'll miss you more than anyone in my life I love you more than anyone in my life.
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Cole Kushner
After Thomas romantic admission, the vocals give way to a smooth, perfectly toned electric guitar solo beginning a minute and a half instrumental outro. And yet the emotional core of the song never fades, a testament to Daft Punk's ability to carry feeling through sound alone, meticulously crafting the music to reflect exactly what the lyrics just revealed. However, narratively, we are left in a peculiar place because we never learn how Thomas love interest responds to do they reciprocate his feelings? Do they pull away? In Digital Love, we understood that the love was unrequited, it was but a fantasy. Something About Us, however, offers no resolution either way, abandoning the story at its emotional peak. One way to think about this is that it opens the song up to interpretation, allowing it to function equally as a romantic tragedy or triumph, depending on which outcome resonates more with your own experiences. But perhaps a more meaningful way to understand the song is that its lack of resolution is the point, because in abstaining resolution, the song uniquely occupies the space in between the fragile electric tension at the beginning of a relationship when nothing is certain but emotions are intense and everything feels possible. In this way, Something About Us honors the ambiguous something in its title. That something could be nothing or it could be everything, and the song freezes time to capture one side of that uncertainty, the fleeting, nerve wracking moment when one person finally defines what that something means to them and risks everything to say it out loud.