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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome, everyone, to a special episode of Dissect. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. We are taking a little mid season break from our Daft Punk season to catch up on production. I will return to cover Human After All Alive 2007 and Random Access Memories in two weeks. But don't worry, today we're still talking Daft Punk in a very special episode of Last Song Standing, a show I do with my friend Charles Holmes, where we determine a artist's single greatest song of all time by debating our way through their entire catalog. Charles, welcome back to the show. It's good to see you, man.
- [00:43]
B
Dog, it's good to see you. And I gotta. I was about to text you this today, being like, yo, Cole, you're a genius.
- [00:51]
A
Oh, okay.
- [00:51]
B
I'm like, I'll save it for the pod. I am enjoying the fucking season. I'm not all caught up yet, but I'm like, I'm at the Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger episode at each time. That's how I prepped for this episode. I was just like, going through. I'm like, dog, I don't even know what I'm gonna bring to this episode. I am a huge fan, you guys. You and Kevin, everybody. Justin involved is killing it.
- [01:12]
A
Well, thank you. That's a great way to start the episode with praise from the cynic himself. You don't give your praise. I. I take your praise very seriously. Because it doesn't come often.
- [01:22]
B
No, no, no. This season if. Cause, like, I knew you were doing this season or you had ideas about doing the season before the fans. And I was personally excited because I was like, oh, this is gonna be a new challenge. And it's just you've blossomed into it. This is. Dog, you're on a roll. Honestly, they're saying Bill Simmons, like, re Apex Cole.
- [01:45]
A
Okay, I'll take it.
- [01:47]
B
You know, we should have got him finished the season, but.
- [01:49]
A
Well, anyone that's listening to the season should know that you are actually solely responsible for it, because it was our episode on Last Song Standing last season. Last year on Discovery versus Kid A that converted me to a Daft Punk. I'm always a fan of Daft Punk, but I rediscovered my love for Daft Punk through that episode. And they're like, honestly, like, going through this exercise of doing the season, spending like six months of my life just studying everything they've done, I've come away maybe more rewarded than most of the seasons I've done. Now in 10, almost 10 years of doing dissect. Damn, where I just, I knew going into that they were great, but I just didn't understand the depth of what they were doing because we get so caught up in like, the glamour of them and like, it's fun dance music and almost it's light hearted a lot of the time. But they were thinking so strategically and conceptually across their entire arc of their career, where they built these true characters that were what I were talking about, themes that are becoming more and more and more relative with each passing year. And they're so ahead on like all great art. They're kind of ahead of the curve thematically about where society was going and really getting interested in this relationship of humanity and technology. And as we'll talk about at the end of the season, really creating this masterwork in random access memories that is homage to humanity. And so, yeah, it's been super rewarding. I thank everyone that's been listening so far. And we'll be back in a couple weeks. But this is a show, I think, that is a little more fun. We talk a little bit more about our personal experience with music. It's not as it's analytically driven. So anyone that's not familiar with Last Song Standing, I'll kind of give you just a basic run of the show. So we do this once a year on the dissect feed. And the goal of the show is to crown an artist single best song ever, AKA the last song standing. And we do this by debating our way through their entire catalog. Usually this is done over a full season where each we go into one album per episode of an artist catalog and then come out the other side of that whole discography deep dive, crowning their last song standing in the season finale. And we've done full seasons on Kendrick Lamar, on Frank Goshen, on Outkast. So if you're a fan of those artists, definitely go back and check those seasons out there on the dissect feed. And we will be starting a new season right after the Daft Punk season on Kevin Bleep that out. But that'll be starting in this June, right after the Daft Punk season.
- [04:23]
B
Hold up, wait, why aren't you telling the people who the artist is?
- [04:27]
A
Because we're gonna reveal it at the season finale on the part two of the Daft Punk last longstanding episode. Oh, she we're gonna reveal it there?
- [04:34]
B
Hell yeah.
- [04:34]
A
So the little mini series on Daft Punk, on Last Long Standing Daft Punk, we're gonna do this in two parts. So today we're covering homework and Discovery, the two albums that I've already covered on Dissect. And then after the season finale of Dissect proper, we'll come back Charles and we'll do Human after all. We'll do a live 2007 and random access memories and they will also crown on that episode Daft Punk's greatest song of all time. I'm pretty excited for this. This is gonna be. This is gonna be just fun. I'm just really excited to talk to you about this.
- [05:03]
B
No, I'm excited for this. It's just the fact that you have just re found Daft Punk. Cause you know not to. We'll probably talk about this more. But like a lot of our history with Last song standing is wrapped up in you being like technical, breaking down how a song works and what makes it work and the history of it. And I more so shoot from my hip, the heart, the hot take, Haver and I think Daft Punk, we come together. So, bro, I'm excited. Should we get into the first album?
- [05:34]
A
Yeah, let's take a quick break and then we'll get into homework. This episode is presented by AT&T. AT&T believes in connecting people to greater possibilities. And they do that through a network that keeps you meaningfully connected to those 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 connecttochange@&t Connecting Changes Everything.
- [06:11]
C
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- [07:31]
A
All right, it is time to talk Homework by Daft punk, released on January 20, 1997. Famously, the project they Recorded entirely in Thomas bedroom home studio. Came off the heels of a massive hit in Defunk. Really the single that really put Daft Punk on the map. Produced a couple other singles and around the world revolution 909 burnin Charles. We have not really talked about homework together at all. So I'm curious what your relationship. Start me off with just your relationship with. With the album.
- [08:03]
B
I think like most kids who came of age in the 2000s, homework is something that I had to go back to, even though obviously I had heard Defunct around the World. And I think my appreciation for Homework increased the older I got because Shout out my best friend Elias, he's a great music journalist, worked at Rolling Stone, Billboard, now Wall Street Journal. Super huge house head. Like to this day we'll go out weekends, dance to house music and I homework. My appreciation rose for it because house music is something that can best be understood on the dance floor. The repetition of it. The four on the floor, you got some drinks, people are dancing. Maybe you take a little something of this and that and it's just a vibe. And Homework to me is a more interesting record because the DNA of who Daft Punk was and who would they become is all there. You can listen to around the World, Dafunk, a lot of other songs as see precursors of ideas that would be like fleshed out and then go on to change all of popular music very soon after this. What was your relationship with homework and has it changed? Dissecting it?
- [09:20]
A
Yeah, I would say coming into the season, I didn't have a. A strong relationship with it. Obviously I knew the hits and I was fans mostly of the hits and not so much didn't. Wasn't familiar as much with the deep cuts. And I think, I mean, it's. You know what it really reminded me of when I was really sitting down with it and studying one. It was just like these guys were 18, 19, 20 years old where they're making this music. Which is just like one of the most crazy things about learning about their story was like they got into electronic music and like overnight became virtuosos, essentially. Like you hear the rough drafts of the early demo of like the New Wave, for instance, but that's like their first single and like only a few months after they discovered and got their own electronic equipment. Like they're just hitting fucking home runs right out the gate. And it reminded me of. But to your point, about kind of like containing seeds of ideas that would blossom later in their career. It reminded me a lot of odd future to Be honest, who we might be talking a lot more about this summer. But I remember Earl Sweatshirt saying, we got famous off our rough drafts. They were also 17, 18, 19, putting out music. And likewise, you can see the brilliance in Odd Futures, early work. Obviously it was nothing that what they would eventually become as mature artists, but it was just an interesting exercise of when artists get famous very quickly, especially early into them, even just making music at all. You know, you go back to Darlin and it's like those. Those attempts at rock music are rough, like, to say the least. Like, it's just not like, great, you know, and like, you can't blame them. They're high school kids. But then just to see the excel, like just exponential growth as artists and we get to like, essentially all of it's documented. And so homework, I thought, was really smart in the way that they framed it. Even as, like always being self aware, even at a young age, framing it as homework, as studying the greats that they loved and channeling that influence and essentially fusing it with something I think only youth can provide, which is the energy, the innovation. And that's what homework is to me. It's that fusion of these passionate kids that fell in love with house music, doing their best to replicate their heroes and infusing the genre with something new that only two kids that are 18, 19, 20 years old can do. So I think it's a great album, but I think I'm more interested in as an artifact of their career. That makes sense.
- [11:58]
B
It reminds me. Daft Punk kind of reminds me of the trajectory of a group like the Beastie Boys, where you have white artists that grow up in a rock scene that fall in love with a black art form. And where you have to start is even on homework, you can still feel them almost being too indebted to their teachers in a way where it's like they're making innovation, but they're still very reverential. Like, oh my gosh, this is.
- [12:28]
A
These are gods.
- [12:30]
B
We are guests in this. And then when you get to something like a discovery or a ram, it's like, oh, we're going to the future. It's like a Paul's Boutique. Where you go from being the guest in an art form to being leaders to being peers. But that's why I'm excited to get into this project. Cause I think the songs that we both chose are good examples of them. Just like, you can point to this and be like, already at 18, 19, 20 years old, their musical minds were still thinking differently than Even a lot of their peers in dance music, in house music, you can see the song craft and you're like, oh, they would become pop stars very quickly after this.
- [13:14]
A
Yeah, it's interesting, the proximity too, of, like, where house music is an import to France, you know what I mean? I think them coming from not only revering rock music and as we had come to find out in discovery and Random Access memories, like all types of different music from the 70s specifically. But, yeah, being from France and having this kind of foreign take or even experience of this black American art form that kind of just made its way over to the uk, I think also kind of infused their take of house. Could only be something unique, right? It couldn't be of America, of native to the. To the genre. Let's jump into the nomination. So how Last song Standing works is with each album, Charles and I nominate the songs off that album that we think that should be in contention for Daft Punk's Best of All Time. So we're gonna each nominate two songs off of Homework. And then at the end of this episode, we're gonna be forced to pick just one song off the album to take into the finale. And the finale becomes like this royal rumble of all the songs that we have chosen from each album that kind of duke it out elimination style until we whittle down and can agree on the best Daft Punk song of all time. So, Charles, I'm gonna let you go first, since you're our guest today, which is the first song you'd like to nominate off of Homework.
- [14:38]
B
So I think it's the best song. It's not the biggest song off this project, but I think to me, it is the best song. I'm going with Defunct. To me, the iconic synth Rift was listening to, like, re listening to it today, and it's so propulsive to me, it feels like an exploitation movie, you know? And it's like. I think what we were talking about before we got into the nominations about Daft Punk is almost like post global in a way, because they are French. They are French musicians who were first rock stars who fall in love with house. Chicago House, Detroit House, Black and brown. Music that are also at the same time falling in love with G Funk. So you have Chicago, Detroit, California, France, and it should not work. It is a bunch of degrees that should not work on paper. And then you listen to Defunk and you're like, oh, it washes over you. It makes sense. It's like a spaghetti Western. You're just like, oh, this could Only these genres could only make sense with kids who are at an age where it's almost like their naivete allows something that only youth can provide. I think Defunk is so beautiful. There was a moment, I don't mean for you to have to restate it, but I was listening to the season, and when you brought in the Beethoven motif, I was like, oh, so that's why I love this so much. Part of this episode is gonna be me being a fan asking you a lot of questions about crafting this season. But for Defunk specifically, just from an emotional context, why do you think this song works for you? Like, even when you were dissecting it, were there moments where you're just like, take everything that you're breaking down off when you're listening to it, what to you is hitting?
- [16:48]
A
I mean, just the synth tone and the riff itself is just fucking cool. Like that's. I mean, that's really the essence of it. I mean, it's just a cool riff, you know, and it's like everything about the song is simple, you know? And like, what really amazed me when I dissected it, it was like over half the sounds in that song are presets, are sample pack, generic sample. Well, not generic, but they are on sample packs. They didn't go take those samples from those records themselves. They were pulling it from these pre made CD ROMs that producers used to use in the days before computers. And so that was mind blowing. Which is just like. That to me, just epitomizes great artists. Where I always think of the quote that John Lennon gave on a talk show host or on a talk show one time where he's like, give me a fucking tuba and I'll make you something great out of it. Meaning I'm a great artist, I'll make anything great. And it's like, yeah, you hand those CD roms to a thousand producers and none of them are making defunct. And you know, so it's like that aspect of it. But just the, like the synth tone itself, it's like it's something I. We broke down and kind of tried our best to recreate it, but even then it's like that still just doesn't capture the magic of the riff, which is like the. And I broke down, I compared it to Beethoven and it's like. Which is my way of like honoring a riff that is that good. Let me see if there's any like, compositional nuggets I can give you to say, like to. To give us some idea of why this Riff works so well, but there is a unexplainable quality that I just can't really say anything about. When you have a riff that good, it's just. It's just magic. You can't really explain it, but you know it when you hear it. And I feel like Defunk is, like, the epitome of that. And then, like, the thing. Talk about seeds of something. Like they would go on to do forever in their career. When they combined that first riff with the second riff, they introduced the busy one. And you're just like, are they gonna do it? And they fucking do it. They mash them together and somehow it works.
- [18:55]
B
And then it's a type. Like, you're on the. What do they call it? The high wire or whatever in a circus. You're just like, they're about to fall. So much of their music, and you've been kind of breaking this down is like, these two things shouldn't work. And it's about to crash. And you're getting the feeling of tension being, are they gonna do it? Are they gonna do it? And then the explosion. Like, a lot of people will think of dubstep. Like, I know dubstep at this point has a very. Like, we're building up to the crescendo, you're building up to the drop. And I think what Daft Punk does so well is the tension of their drops are. There's no way they can pull off the magic trick. And they do it every time. And I even think, what defunct kind of teases about where discovery's gonna go is that Defunk. Everything from the Spike Jonze video to the beginning, where you're hearing the song almost filtered. Like they're on a busy 70s street and you're hearing the song before it comes in. Yeah, that's cinematic. Without them overly telling you or, like, telegraphing that this is gonna feel like a movie. It feels like a movie. And you're just like, oh, on records, like, even around the world, different stuff. You're like, okay. They have this thing that. I think there's no diss. I love electronic music. I love a lot of dance music. But I think a lot of producers fall into, like, one or, like, a few categories where sometimes it's all about the technical aspects of it. Where you're gonna listen to a producer, they're gonna have these presets, they're gonna have these samples, they're gonna. Or someone who's like, it's just about the dancing. This track works best on the Club four To the floor. What I think Daft Punk does is their music works on so many different levels. It works on a technical level, it works on a nar. It works on a dance level. And the more you listen to it, how Defunk sounds on a dance floor is not how it feels when you're watching the music video is not how it feels when you're just driving in the car. It has so many of those layers.
- [20:52]
A
No, yeah, that's beautiful. Point. And it's also very singular in their catalog. Like you can. We'll talk about. We're going to talk about around the World, obviously at some point in this episode. And you can see the seeds of that. You know, the bass, funky baseline, the looping aspect of it and the vocal order. Like that goes on to really evolve over the arc of their career. You can't really say that about Defunct. Like think of their entire catalog. There's not really another song like it like that, that slow in tempo, that kind of riff driven structure. Like you can hear like the same kind of mashup idea and like a song like Aerodynamic. The tone and textures and the energy of that song. It's totally different from Defunct. And it's kind of this. Just this special singular event in their career very early on in their career. Their second fucking single, by the way. It's just like. It's like it crazy. And that. The fact that they consciously didn't repeat it. You know, there's an interview, I can't remember if I played it on. I don't think I made it into the episode. But Gimon was saying there was this moment where after this success of Defunct, we had this. We could have made Defunct two and we were tempted to do that. I can't remember if he actually said they started on something that was more defunct to Sequel, Like. And he said, but we ultimately decided against it and we made Roland and scratching instead. And like, that was a very definitive moment for them that would also kind of blossom into their entire approach of their career. Which is like they never repeat themselves twice. Maybe on the same album they'll have songs that are similar in the similar world. But as I've been trying to highlight and will become more obvious as the season goes on, no one Daft Punk album sounds remotely the same. Which is like kind of crazy when you think about it. Because when I think about Daft Punk, I do think about a very. There's a sound in my head. But individually, when you actually take a look at each album on. On its own, it's all. It's. It's its own world, its own language. They kind of reinvent themselves every single time. And Daft and Defunk, I think is just like the, the. The first seed of that of like this is a thing. It is singular and we're never returning to it because we have Daft Punk
- [22:58]
B
are conceptual artists in the same way that Kendrick Lamar is where it's like, when you think about Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid, Mad City, what that does is completely different to what Damn does. And we think that we know what the Kendrick Lamar sound is like. We both have talked about it. But when you actually in a vacuum just look at a project, you're just like, oh no, he's rapping in a different way. The beats are different and it's more complex. Even though we're like, there are a couple of things that Kendrick Lamar returns to. I think Daft Punk is very, very similar to me. Defunk is like the jump from like something like defunct to you brought up. Aerodynamic is similar to Terminator and Terminator 2 where it's like Terminator is a very dirt, like down on the floor, dirty, cheap horror, sci fi movie that should almost fall apart. It's all presets. It's like seeing somebody who is James Cameron does not have all the money or the experience that he will one day have. But he's so technically proficient that if you would have given the same script and the same story to any other director, they would have fucked it up and it just would have been a B movie that never worked. And then you get to somewhere with Discovery and you look at something like Aerodynamic, where you're like, oh, this is Terminator 2. This is Sleek. The samples are cutting in a certain way and you're like, oh, this is what happens when 18, 19 year old kids are like, okay, we showed you what our influences are. Now we're going to break the bank and do everything new. We'll talk about that later. But Defunk is easily my favorite song on this record. What is your first nomination though?
- [24:37]
A
I think it would have been Defunk, but I'm happy to select around the World, I think is the obvious choice as a number two. Yeah, I mean a deceptively simple song with a incredible groove and a now iconic music video. I think I remember the music video more than the song itself. I just remember the Michel Gondry video playing on MTV2 like all the time. And just that was kind of like at least my introduction to Michel Gondry. Actually. Now that I'm thinking About it was. And the same with Spike Jones was through these kind of now iconic music videos.
- [25:20]
B
Yeah.
- [25:21]
A
But yeah, around the world. I mean, I'll save the compositional stuff. I guess I've already covered it on the show. But to have a seven minute song that sounds like it's gonna. That it sounds like it's repeating, but it's actually not repeating is just like another one of these conceptual approaches that you're just like, how and how, like why and how. And of course he pulled it off perfectly. And it's like this unstated thing that probably most people I didn't even recognize until I really sat down to dissect it. But it's like once I figured that out and the way they're using these loops as like modular units and kind of making new combinations and patterns and really maximizing the potential of the loops is just like again, early Daft Punk creating a hit song, a unthinkable hit song that repeats the refrain a hundred and I forgot exactly how many times. But it's just absurd on paper. Like all of it is absurd. And yet time and time again they just always fucking pull it off. We haven't actually. Are you a fan of this song?
- [26:25]
B
I love this song. I think this song is interesting in their catalog where it is undeniably their first pop hit. And even when you go back to it. And I think that's why I'm a little bit like, I don't really go back to around the World anymore. But when I was putting on my thinking cap in preparation for this and listening back to it, I was like, oh, that. And this is gonna sound like, oh, duh. Most electronic producers are. But I'm like, no. Dap Punk are experts at structure and time and repetition in a way where the best music feels effortless. Where you listen to it and be like, I could do that. And then when you actually break down the components of the record, you're like, oh, this is so effortless. I did not know how hard this would be to actually put together. Where your brain is almost so hypnotized when you're listening to this record that emotionally you're going on a journey that you don't even remember by the end of the song. And what I love, when you were breaking it down, it's like, yeah, they keep adding things and like, there are certain things about this that are repeating. Around the World is repeating, but the production of it is taking you on a journey that's not technically. And I was like, oh, that is so fucking fascinating how you can just build something like that. And yeah, I think that is the genius of Daft Punk where everybody thinks that they can do it, but not really, because even sometimes during the season where you're showing a technique that Daft Punk used or popularized, you will show other artists that then did it. And I was like, these songs were hits and they were good, but they're not as good.
- [28:16]
A
Yeah, they don't have the magic. Yeah. But yeah, to your point though, like, yeah, that is something that I was really interested in going into the season was like the art of repetition. Because it is incredibly hard to. To repeat as much as. I mean, house music is based on repetition, obviously. And there's a. There's a craft to repetition. You know, you can't just generically loop something for three minutes, no less, seven and a half minutes, you know, and get away with it. People are just going to tune it out. And I think where more generic house artists kind of rely on the cliches of the genre and really bank on to your point about build up and, you know, release and like, that works. Obviously that, that works, but it's also cliche and if you don't do it correctly, it will just fall flat or become generic or kind of get washed in the world of, you know, just become just another song with a drop, you know, where around the World, I think is a really great example of them mass being masters of repetition, studying not only, you know, romanthony or. Or name your early house artist, but also studying Nile Rogers, you know, or studying chic from top to bottom, the drummer, the bassist. And really, you know, what is the heart of these? What is the soul in the. In chic? What is the. What are we really trying to do in repetition? We're trying to energize a dance floor. We're trying to. To have endless momentum. And there is. There's just a certain nuance and craft to sustaining what feels like repetition and make it interesting and engaging and something that you'd want to dance to and not just, you know, our brains are really good at have. Like once we figured something out, we tune it out. Yeah, and that was the thing about. That was the thing about around the World I was trying to unpack was like, why is that not happening with this song? Why am I engaged the entire seven and a half minutes? You know, and then this is the thing about doing dissect is like, oh yeah, there is a reason for it. It's not repeating. That's.
- [30:30]
B
That's.
- [30:30]
A
It's literally not repeating. And so our brains are always, like, subconsciously attaching ourselves or, you know, we just. You can't really figure it out ever. And I think that's how we. You could. To your point about losing yourself in it, you just kind of get. Your brain gets, like, sucked into the groove. And I think the best house music, best techno, best edm, maintains that quality. It maintains your intention.
- [30:53]
B
So let me ask this, though. I had a big. Because when we started doing Last Song Standing, a lot of times I'd be like, yo, it's funny. I think Sean Fennesee has actually said something like this where, like, music can be a very passive experience. And as I've been thinking about Daft Punk and just music in general, the older I get, but the farther I get away from music criticism journalism, I'm like, actually, I think music being a passive experience is a very modern inclination. And what I mean by that is, when you listen to gospel, it is music that is soundtracking something. It is amplifying something. It's worship, but it is helping buoy the worship experience. Same thing with R and B. They call it baby making music. But when you look at what's happening lyrically, what's happening musically, it's like there's a reason people feel good and feel sexy and in the bones of rhythm and blues. And I think, similarly, Daft Punk to me, is not a passive experience. It is like, this is music, and we can talk about it with discovery. This is childlike wonder. Why does a child hear a James Brown song and they just cannot help but start dancing? And what I want to ask you is you've obviously dissected Daft Punk in a very analytical lens. When are you gonna hit the dance floor? House show. You're not a big dancer, but really just let yourself go and feel, like, feel the dance floor in the same way that Daft Punk, that your inner child. When are we gonna get Cole dancing?
- [32:39]
A
That is a great point, Charles. And I think, to be honest, it gets at something deeper about me in terms of maybe I spend so much time thinking and analyzing music because I'm missing that aspect of it. I'm missing out because, yeah, I don't go out. I never have, really. I mean, I used to get that experience on stage a lot. Like, if you saw me perform, you'd probably hardly recognize me in terms of, like, I used to go, like, pretty wild on stage, but I don't really have that outlet anymore. And it might take a friend like Charles Holmes to take Me to the club. I don't even know where. I would.
- [33:14]
B
I don't know where. The final. No, I'm gonna take you out. We're listening to some dance music. I want you to dance because that's. I think that's the final level of unlocking Daft Punk is really just being like, I don't care who's watching. I don't care who's recording. Around the world, my brain just get lost in it. Get lost in the song that's taken me to a place. Come on. All right, that's.
- [33:36]
A
We need. You know what we really need? We need the Alive 2027 tour. I would lose my fucking mind here.
- [33:44]
B
If you're a fan of Dissect and you have a show on the west coast where you're just like, I will play the perfect house set for Cole and Charles, hit us up. I promise I will drag Cole there against his will, and we will be dancing all night.
- [33:59]
A
Sounds actually amazing. I might need a few drinks first.
- [34:02]
B
Hell, yeah. I got you.
- [34:04]
A
I'm very open to that experience because. Yeah. To honor Daft Punk. I do.
- [34:08]
B
Yeah.
- [34:08]
A
I'm missing that quality. I need to do that. Okay, let's get back on track. Second nomination from you, Charles. I'm very curious where you're going next,
- [34:16]
B
so I'm not gonna belabor this one. I mostly picked it because I think the transcendent songs on Homework are transcendent and everything else to me is like, they are good songs, but they are not necessarily fleshed out in the way where I'm like, to me, Homework is a record like we were just talking about that I would rather dance to than listen to in my car. And that doesn't mean it's a lesser record. Is just like, oh, if I was a couple drinks in and there was music playing somewhere, I would want to dance to this. So for that reason, I picked Teachers. And I picked it because I'm like, oh, with teachers, you've already kind of touched upon it when you were talking about kind of like, the history and how they became. Daft Punk is a song where they shout out 43 influences across just music history. And to me, it's not a song that, in the last song Standing Framework, where we're like, can you hand this to an alien? And they would understand everything about the artist. I don't know if Teachers is that, but it would be a great syllabus song, Right? It's a great syllabus. Like, to me, it's a precursor to something like Face to face Teachers. Teachers, to me is like them. I already said it. Almost bowing down at the altar of house music and disco and G funk. They're shouting out all of these influences that if we're being real, weren't just going to be songs that they were sampling later, but would be actual artists that they're collaborating with very, very soon. Which is also crazy, where it's like, on your first album, you have an entire song devoted to people that very, very quickly, not only would you eclipse in terms of just, like, the music you're creating from just a commercial standpoint, but are people that you're bringing along for the ride, which I think is just amazing. But I brought it up because I think maybe one of us might be picking face to face. And it's like, damn. I think the failing of teachers is that it is. It's a song that is pointing towards something, but it's missing that last 10% of them. Like, okay, we know your influences. Crank it up to 10. Show me how you're gonna use the paintbrushes. Am I being. I'm not saying Teachers is a bad song. I'm saying it's just like. It's key to understanding Daft Punk then and where they would go. And I more so wanted to talk about it from a framework standpoint of, hey, they're giving us the blue. The blueprint.
- [37:11]
A
I think it was really important to their. To the arc of their career, because I think to. To the conversation we're having earlier about them being white French foreigners adopting this music, black American art form. I think you can feel in that song and the. The number of artists that they name and the, like, the deep cuts of, like, the artists that they're. You know, they didn't know Homework was going to be as big as it was, but they had a sense that they had a platform with Defunk, you know what I mean?
- [37:41]
B
Yeah.
- [37:41]
A
And to very early on, shout out these artists that I think you reading interviews from some of these artists, like, that was kind of a big deal for them, you know, these underground producers or artists or musicians that maybe had some acclaim within the house scene, but house was still underground, you know, and so to get a shout out on a Daft Punk record was a big deal. And I think what I love about the song and Homework in general and just their approach to house and techno is that they did feel very reverential. They did. It did feel like they were genuinely respectful of the masters that laid the foundation of these genres in the same way, I think the best white hip hop artists always have paid homage. And you can just. You had a sense that their connection to the artists and the genre and the culture was real. And it wasn't purely, you know, Van
- [38:34]
B
Parish or Your M&Ms, your Mac Millers, your boys, where it's like, I'm still a guest at first. I have to be, like a guest and I have to be humble because I'm in a house that I didn't build.
- [38:45]
A
Exactly. And I feel like for that reason, it was very critical that this was on there, because it doesn't feel like pandering. It feels like two kids having fun, shouting out their influences that were everything to them at that point. I remember being 18, 19, and, like, studying. Who was I studying at that time? Name your artist. But it was like, those guys, like, musicians were gods to me back then. Yeah, I wanted to be exactly like them. I was dressing, like, when I was high school as Tom DeLonge. I wanted. I'm just studying his every move. He's a God. And, like, you know, you're you. You age and your taste gets more mature. But, like, that aspect of, like, honoring these people that have gifted you this genre, I think it was very real. And you can sense it in that song. You can sense it throughout homework and. Yeah. So I think symbolically, it's a great choice.
- [39:34]
B
I want to point out something that you brought up on the season. You have to. I think what's so interesting about French culture is their relationship to art. You know, it's disco, once again, is something that gets commodified very, very quickly. And to me, it's. No, it's not surprising to me that after disco starts getting bashed, a genre that's built, people of color are building this. It takes people of culture again, people of color again with house music, to really recontextualize it. And then it takes French people to really say, like, hey, America might have said, this music is whack. Now we love this music. We are gonna actually honor it. I think we can talk about it later, but when you think about the interstellar anime that they made for Discovery, to this day, France's relationship to anime culture is so much more nuanced and so much more. They honor it. They give it a halo. They're like, this is so cool. And I think that's something special. The reason Daft Punk can make this type of music is because you can tell they're not only fans of this, but what you were saying, they're still the high school Kids are being like, you guys are gods to us. We are going like, we don't. We're not sticking our nose being like, disco sucks, house sucks. We're actually like, yo, you don't actually understand globally how much this means to us. We are going to try to blow it off. Like, blow the hinges off. And I just like, whether it's they're taking anime, whether it's. They're listening to Chic, whether it. They're taking G Funk or all, they're taking all this and be like, man, y' all don't even appreciate this.
- [41:26]
A
Yeah. It's such a weird. I mean, it's just a weird song. I know it's based on another. A ghetto house song. But it's like. It's a strange approach. You know what I mean? Like, just shouting out 43 artists on a song.
- [41:37]
B
But it makes sense because it's like, if you go back to house music and where it's being created, and it's like being in somebody's house, it's just like. There is a moment when you're dancing, like, obviously this wasn't made whole, but you're thinking about. You're just like, yeah. You're shouting out people, you're shouting out DJs on the lineup, you're shouting out the MCs. Like, it has that feeling of like, oh, this is the moment in the house party where we're just like, yeah, shout out my man.
- [42:03]
A
Shout out my other man.
- [42:04]
B
Shout out my cousin.
- [42:08]
A
Yeah. All right, beautiful.
- [42:09]
B
I love teachers, but what's your last song that you're going to nominate from homework?
- [42:14]
A
Yeah. We don't have to spend too much time on this. I was debating between Revolution 909 and Alive, and I know Revolution 909 is the more popular song. I love the introduction just to the. Just to acknowledge it, because I don't think I talked about it on the season. But opening with, like, the cops coming, like, breaking up the house party, I thought is another, like, little nod to the lineage of house music, which. Which was this underground thing, which was like when early raves, you know, cops were coming in, crashing those parties. So it has a little bit of history in. In the beginning of that song. But I gotta go with my heart and just go with Alive. Alive, to me is like just the. It has that. It sounds like justice, but made in 1997. Like, the huge synths, the dark kind of undertones to it, and it just feels, like, humongous. And then when you, like. I tried to.
- [43:12]
B
What?
- [43:12]
A
I tried to highlight on the Season was like, Alive is a. Essentially a revamped version of their first single, the New Wave. And it really. A back to back comparison really shows you, like, the difference of, like, how fast these guys were getting or how good and how fast they were getting good at the mastering their equipment. Because there's a breath. There's a breath to the. There's a. I don't know, it feels massive, you know, and it's like, this is 1997. And these synths just sound humongous. And the groove again, talk about a hypnotic groove that you can just like stay alive inside for. For, you know, enter Eternity. Like, I would just want to live inside that song. It has like, I love the darker tones. I love. That's why I love Justice. It's because they usually do songs in the minor key. And like, it has this, like a darker, sinister quality to it. I think Alive has some of that. And it just feels like. I just love that it feels alive. You can feel the breadth of the song. I don't think it's gonna go far in this exercise, but it's one of my favorite songs. So I wanted to highlight it. I don't know, are you. Are you a fan of this song?
- [44:17]
B
So I don't have a deep connection to a lie, but when I was listening to it, we've been talking about, like, in Homework, going back to Homework. What's so rewarding about it is like, you can almost see in every single song, point to a moment where I'm like, oh, this song is gonna remind me of a future album. To me, Alive really helps you unlock Human after all, which to me is also a very dark record. But once again, like a cinematic record. But different than Discovery, where it's like, if Homework to me is a very grungy teenage. We're breaking into these raves, we're going to house parties, we're falling in love with this. And then Discovery is like, we're taking you back to the past as children to forecast the future. Human, after all, is very much like, hey, we're going back to the roots. And we're saying, like, hey, you guys think we're goofy robots? Nah, we've always been human. We've all like, we're gonna show you this darkness. And I think Alive has that quality where I'm like, damn. Everything in Homework is something like. It just shows you that they had the blueprint from day one.
- [45:25]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got our two songs each. I got around the World and Alive. You pick defunct and teachers.
- [45:32]
B
Yep.
- [45:32]
A
At the end of the episode, we're gonna force to choose one to take into the finale and we're gonna take a quick break and then get into Discovery. This episode is brought to you by Warby Parker. A family member of mine was trying to buy glasses online recently and it turned into a whole ordeal. There are so many styles that it's honestly overwhelming and you're just staring at these tiny pictures trying to guess what'll actually look good on your face. Then the prices hit and it feels kind of wild to spend hundreds of dollars on something you're not even sure is going to work. But Warby Parker completely flipped the experience. They've simplified everything. Quality, price, selection, all of it. And their virtual try on is surprisingly accurate. Such a game changer right now. Buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs@warbyparker.com that's 20% off additional prescription pairs when you go to warbyparker.com Dissect this episode is brought to you by ATT. At ATT, 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@att.at ask how you can get iPhone 17 Pro on them with eligible iPhone Trade in any condition requires trade in of iPhone 15 or higher excluding iPhone 16e and 17e requires eligible plan terms and restrictions apply, subject to change. Visit att.com iPhone for details. One more time. All right, we are back to talk Discovery. Charles we did an episode on Discovery paired with kid a in our last season of last song standing last year where we we kind of mixed up the format where we were trying to name the best album of the 21st century so far. And we pitted kid A, one of my favorite albums of all time, with Discovery. One of your favorite albums of all time, I'll say now, one of my favorite albums all time. But so we've talked a lot about it together. But for the listeners that don't know your relationship with Discovery, why don't you let them know?
- [47:55]
B
It's. It's funny going back and realizing the inspiration behind Discovery. If anyone doesn't know, please go listen to the season. But correct me if I'm wrong, the shorthand is essentially like both of the guys are essentially like, hey, we want to go back to that moment as children where you're just so in love with music and it's something where you can't express it, but you can feel it. And they're taking everything from rock music and electronic music, but also old anime that they were watching in TV shows originally. They wanted to make this as a movie. And even as a kid, even though I didn't have any of that context, I remember the first time I saw the video for like One More Time. I was at when we still had. People still went to malls, my parents were on vacation, we passed a Sam Goody and I just heard the music and I saw the video and I saw these blue anime people and I did not have a. I had reference points. I have seen anime before, I've heard the song before. But there was something so innocent about it where I could not help but dance. I could not help but be like just in trance. I was transported. And obviously I chose it for last album standing. Cause I was like, I think going back to the effortless quality of Daft Punk. Sometimes I feel like people are like, well, they're just goofy. They're playing robots. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, they're not goofy. All of this is intentional. All of this is almost trying to get you back in touch with the innocent part of listening and dancing to music. And that's why I love this record because that's how I approach music criticism. Where even before I start like dissecting the lyrics or getting into everything, I'm like, how does this hit me? Like, if I was a child listening to this, if I played this for my 5 year old self, what would be my first reaction? But for you, what would like, can we actually go into, like, what was your relationship with Dap Punk? Like? If we're going back to you, were you above it? Did you like them? Did you understand them? What, like, what was your actual connection?
- [50:07]
A
Yeah, I was late to the scene. I. I want to say, obviously I knew one more time. And I think I probably made a lot of my judgments just based on knowing that one song and not being familiar with anything else. Maybe around the world. But I. I didn't really get into them until want to say Kanye Stronger was the, you know, like probably a lot of people, yeah, you're just kind of reminded of like, oh yeah, Daft Punk exists. And then I checked out Human after all. And that was actually the album that I really listened to a lot. When I first really got into Daft Punk was through Human after all. Ironically enough, it being kind of their least popular work. But I actually remember really liking that album at the time.
- [50:51]
B
I love that album.
- [50:52]
A
Yeah, It's. I don't think it's their best album, but it's a great album. I really enjoy it. And so I was like, like many people kind of returning to their older music, but I would say even then, like, it didn't quite click. Especially now, how I feel about them now. I think this last year of my life has been. I'm not sure I've developed a deeper relationship with a band's catalog more than I have Daft Punks in the last 10, 15 years, you know, because it's, it's. It exists. I remember Random Access memories. I remember really listening to that album when it. Right when it came out too. But in terms of homework and especially Discovery, Yeah. I don't think I've fallen more in love with an older album than Discovery, like, in recent memory for me, like, to the point where Discovery is like in my top 10 of all time albums, which is like kind of crazy because it's like a late entry and it was. Was made in 2001. But this album, as I've been trying to convey through the season, is like a masterpiece. Like.
- [51:55]
B
Yeah.
- [51:56]
A
And it. I think it's like, like all great albums has just become better with age. Because I can't really speak to the experience of it in the moment. I don't know if you can or if you can remember, but it still sounds so fresh and new. It doesn't sound of its era, which I think we've talked a lot about with some of the classic albums that we've covered on the show, where it's like you put on Discovery and it doesn't sound like 2001. It could. It could have been released today and you wouldn't think twice about it. There's nothing that's aging it. It only still sounds like the future, and it has moment after moment on this album is just like just some of the best music I have ever heard in my life. Just. I'm not even. Not even exaggerating. It is like such an incredible album.
- [52:44]
B
Before we get to nominations, I want to ask you something really quick. Cause listening to the season, listening to a lot of your breakdowns, it was funny where the reason I brought up a lot of people may be thinking Daft Punk is goofy or childish or hearing around the world and being like, I get it is. I think actually Daft Punk is very, very good at taking musical moments from history that have almost been written off. I'm not saying that they heard Cher and we're like, we're using autotune Now, I'm not saying it's that clear of a jump. I'm saying for them, they can hear Autotune and be like, you think that this is a cheesy effect. There's something corny about it. We're actually going to use it in a way that is going to just open up your mind. We're gonna show you that this is just a tool. I think similarly, you compared the guitarist solo on Aerodynamic to, like, Eddie Van Halen. Right. Or I think they did. And I was like, oh, what's funny about that is, yeah, you think about Van Halen. You think about guitar solos like, this is kind of corny. This is kind of like. You get to a point where you're like, this is overused. But there's something about hearing a guitar solo as a kid where you're like, this is the coolest thing ever. And I think there's a reason why Kanye would sample stronger, because I think Kanye, to me, is also a similar. Where 800 waits and heartbreak is a perfect example. He's like, oh, y' all think Auto Tune is just T Pain shit.
- [54:15]
A
Right?
- [54:15]
B
I'm going to show you that just with a little turn of the dial, I can make this into something that is a lot more refined than you think it is. And I love T Pain. But, yeah, we could get into nominations, but I want to shout out Daft Punk's ability to recontextualize stuff that you would just think is, like, corny and beneath you as a music listener. Well, that. But.
- [54:37]
A
And I think that speaks to, like, the punk and Daft Punk, which is them always going against the grain. Like, we'll talk about it when we get to Random Access Memories. But it was like they created that album during the explosion of edm, when everyone in the. Everyone in the music business would have said, come out with your most discovery, like, album. This is the time you're going to be the kings of edm. Like, you. You're going to be bigger than Michael Jackson if you do this right. It was all laid out for them. And then what do they do? They do the Tron soundtrack, and they do human Random Access Memories, which is not EDM at all. They deliberately go against making music on computers.
- [55:11]
B
Yeah.
- [55:12]
A
And it's like they've. They've done that in their entire career. It's like, we're not making Defunct Part two. We're not making Homework Part two. We're not going to make Discovery Part two. It's like, we're going to take what's in, like, whether it's something that you think is cheesy will make cool and what you think is cool. We're going to. We think is cheesy, you know, And I think they've had that punkish quality in their own way throughout their entire career. In the same vein as a Kanye, I think that's a great comp. Okay, so let's get into the nominations again. We're gonna do two. Two songs each off the album. I think this is gonna be a harder exercise than homework. So I'm curious where you're going first.
- [55:49]
B
So I didn't. I picked one song that is, like, I had to have it. It's my favorite. But I'm gonna start with one where this. It's going to be hard to beat this song. Just because One More Time is arguably, I think Get Lucky might be technically, on a commercial level, bigger. But I still think One More Time is their song.
- [56:09]
A
One More Time,
- [56:17]
B
It's. It's a pop masterpiece. I think One More Time to me, is just around the world on steroids. It is them fully embracing the pop inclinations that they have. And I don't mean pop as a genre. I mean pop as almost an ethos where I think what's so important about discussing Discovery is its artist. This is a lean project. There's so much going on. When you're breaking it down, you're breaking down hundreds of elements. But when you hear it all at once, it's seamless. It's like a samurai drawing a fucking sword. To be One More Time is that it is technically perfect. And it also illustrates something to me where it's like, you take more spell on you, which to me, isn't that genius of a pick for a sample. But it's like they take the most infectious part of the song. The most infectious part, like, as a kid, if you hear this, you're just like, oh, like the dopamine rush you have. And they're almost like, we're gonna make the icing the best fucking icing on a cake you ever had. But I'm gonna. I'm going to fan out right now. Cause I wanted to ask you something. I think it was on this episode you were talking about the brilliance of Daft Punk as samplers. And you said something to the effect of, like, that's almost something that you can't dissect, which is, how do. Like, the best producers that we know can hear something, and they're just like, oh, I'm gonna use that, Jay. Z was recently interviewed by the New York Times for the greatest American songwriters of the 21st century. And Jay Z was saying something to the effect of. He's like, yo, Beyonce actually, I think, loves being a producer more than a songwriter. Like, we can be out at dinner and she can hear a song and she can hear the drums. And months, years later, I will hear her sample it in a way where I was like, oh, she heard something in this song that I would have never, ever picked up on. And to me, that is the brilliance of Daft Punk, where they're not just hearing the cool part of the song. They're just like, we're gonna take this little snippet, and you're almost never gonna realize what we did with it. So to you, I want to ask just on an emotional level, what's that like for you when you're listening to an artist where you're like. Like, in a thousand years, I would have never sampled it in this way.
- [58:48]
A
That is the magic of Daft Punk. That is the magic of sampling. I think that's. That's really. You can teach sampling through this song in a lot of ways because the best samples are transformative. And, like, you listen to the excerpt that they sampled, and it's cool, but it's cooler when Daftunk use it. It's like. And the best samplers, best producers, to your point, are tastemakers, are curators. There's. There's a curation element of sampling where I. I'm going to hear something that you don't. In the same way that stylist puts together combinations of clothes that you would never have met, never even thought to work. Right.
- [59:25]
B
Yeah.
- [59:25]
A
And so there's. There's a reason why Dafunk can hear more, spell on you and make one more time. There's also a reason they built a pyramid stage show and made it look so fucking cool. It's. There's. It's another same reason that they said, I want to be robots, and they made them look like the fucking coolest robots that you could ever have thought of. It's like anything that we're going to do, we have the taste. We are the curators. We know what's cool. We know how to execute it. And I think that's where the best producers in Daft Punk among them, they have the taste and they have the technical expertise to execute the vision where. And I think that's. That's. I wish I had a little bit more information about how they worked, because the sense that I get about them, but I can't say it like 100% with authority is that Tomas seems to be clearly like the technical virtuosic. I'm the guy touching the buttons on the sampler. And that's, that's way easier to appreciate and talk about than something that I think Gimon, from all the sources that I've read brings to the table, which is some technical expertise. But everyone talks about how good his taste is. And that's the thing where it's like, yeah, when I'm dissecting, I can't just say like, oh, yeah. And then Gimon came in and was like, that sounds good. Or like, let's repeat that three times, not four, or whatever he, whatever he does. I don't know. It's much more easier to say, well, Thomas probably did this on the compressor or yada, yada, yada. Like there's a. There's the. And again, all the greatest sample based producers have this effect and I think it comes from Gimon, which is this taste level and just the ability to say, that's cool, that's not, or that could be cool, but we have to do it this way. And maybe, maybe I need Thoma to like help me execute that vision, but I've got the vision in the same way that again, Kanye maybe doesn't have the technical expertise, but he'll bring in the right people to execute the thing that only he could have saw. I think what makes Daft Punk such a great historic combination is it's the same with Lennon McCartney. It's the same as Johnny Greenwood and Thom York. Name your famous duo in history. They complement each other so well. And I think Thomas brings technical execution, giving them the ability to execute at the highest level their ideas. But I think Gimon brought that ineffable taste quality that you can't quite talk about or define that you hear in a song like One More Time, where it's just like, yeah, every time I hear the intro of One More Time, it sounds magical. It sounds like it warms me up in my soul. You know what I mean? I think that's what I came to appreciate about this song that I didn't so much like in the moment because it was overplayed and I didn't have association with who they were or any context around the song at all. And what I've really come to appreciate about the song is that quality of it. You saw it in like, did you see the viral clips that are going around with Thomann Fredegun set? Yes, where they played One More Time as the closer. And you just. The whole fucking room lights up and was like, the guy. There's a shot of the guy that just like, he was about to cry. Like, this is the best moment of my life. And it's like, it has that quality. Even if you don't like the song, you like the fucking song.
- [62:37]
B
So now I have to ask, though, one More Time. I was conflicted because I was like, I feel like I have to pick it for the exercise. But I could not answer. I'm like, is One More Time still overrated? Is it perfectly rated or is it underrated? Because going back, I was like, damn, even if this isn't my favorite song off the project, I can understand why this is the one where, to your point, people in 2026 can, like, be listening to it. And it just brings tears to your eye, being surrounded by people. One more bo.
- [63:19]
A
Yeah, you can't deny it. That's the thing. You just can't deny it. And then, like, the breakdown is like, genius is like two minute breakdown built on. Yeah. And they stretch that out more than you ever possibly could, should, or, you know, and they. They pull it off and it's like. And then to me, it's like, oh, they built in an encore in a song about being an encore. Like, there's a literal encore because they take away the music for so long. So when it comes back, you're like, oh, yeah, this feels really good. It feels like an encore. And then, like, I really love. I talked about on the show, but, like, I gotta acknowledge it in this conversation. Like, to have Romanthony be the voice of this generational anthem is so cool because he was like, still is underground dude, you know, and he was one of the innovators of underground house music and really brought that soul and emotion to the genre in a way that no one else was doing at the time. And so to hit again to honor that legend, to pluck him out of history, to bring him on a song like this and then lead. Lead your. Your second album, your hyped album with that single, with that voice, like, symbolically, to me is just like, so cool.
- [64:26]
B
It's. We're gonna talk about it when we talk about ram, but it's like to your point, master curators, where it's like, people. You can hear Julian Casablancas on ram, and you're like, like, why the fuck is the center from the Strokes working with Daft Punk? But when you think about is this it and discovery and them being made In a very, like. In a very close vacuum, where it's like. I would say the Strokes are closer to peers with Daft Punk. You could. You could see those guys being like, oh, we're gonna take Julian. We're gonna take Pharrell. We're gonna take people who are contemporaries, and we're gonna remix them.
- [65:02]
A
Yeah.
- [65:03]
B
To show how they're still part of a foundation of music. And I think pulling someone like Romanthony in is being like, yo, we know what makes this guy, like, a God to us. We know what makes him cool. We're gonna prove to the world, you have no idea. And what I. Cause it's something ineffable. It's something you can't explain about. When you honor. I think Kendrick. We bring up Kendrick a lot. Kendrick or Frank or all of these transformations. Beyonce are very good at this. Where it's like. Like, I'm going to collaborate with someone who's a part of the history of this. So even if you're like a white kid growing up in the middle of the country and you don't know that it's authentic, your spirit, you can feel it's authentic. You hear romantic. Even if you don't know the history, you're like, this voice is authentic. He is the core of what they're doing. That's why I feel like you just have to honor One More Time in this exercise.
- [65:59]
A
Yeah. I mean, that's a great point about feeling. Cause how many, like, EDM anthems came out in the mid to late 2000s, you know what I mean? And how many of those songs lasted.
- [66:10]
B
Yeah.
- [66:10]
A
But One More time was written 2001, and it's the one song that stuck. That's the one.
- [66:18]
B
It's not a novelty record. A bunch of those records. Cause it's funny. I love when you're during the season playing different songs from around the time. Cause I was just like, no, these songs aren't bad. But a lot of these did become novelty songs. Songs.
- [66:31]
A
Yeah.
- [66:32]
B
Where One More Time never did.
- [66:33]
A
Yeah. One More Time doesn't sound of its era, but it can represent that same era. You know what I mean? Like, it could be that. That generational EDM anthem, even though it's technically not. And that's just the magic quality of it. And that's something you can feel. There's an authenticity that you just. You can't define, but you feel it to your point. So this great. I'm, like, more hyped about this song than I thought it would be, actually. I was like, yeah, we gotta have to choose it. Like, let's. Let's honor it. But, like, I kind of talked myself into it a little bit there.
- [67:02]
B
All right, so what's your first. What's your first pick?
- [67:09]
A
Okay, well, my favorite song. We have the same favorite song on this, I think, on this project.
- [67:15]
B
Yes. And I don't think it was your
- [67:18]
A
favorite song when we first talked about it. I want to say Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger was your favorite song. No, no, it never was.
- [67:25]
B
Okay, because. Are you gonna pick that one? Cause there's actually the two songs that I think. Cause we kind of had to game this out a little bit more the past seasons. There's two songs that I actually think are the best songs on this project. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, to me is like, One More Time. And, like, we have to talk about it. Even as the years go on, I'm like, this ain't the real joint song.
- [67:50]
A
Well, I'll nominate it, though, because, yeah, to your point, you picked One More Time as kind of like, you have to talk about. Then I'll pick Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Brilliant song. I prefer this song more than One More Time, personally. I think it represents everything. I mean, again, it's a singular song that they never returned to. There's not another song like it in their catalog. It's the introduction of the true Daft Punk vocarder voice that we kind of associate with them. You know, this is the defining moment of that particular vocal voc order sound that they do. I think they're the best vocorder users in history. And I think this song proves that, like, the way, technically that they use the. The song as an instrument and play a solo, like a funky solo that's like. And they're. But they. They maintain the Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger lyrics, but they somehow get, like, washed out because the technique, you know, what's going on technically, musically, like, doesn't fit the syllables anymore, but they're just kind of like, cramming it in to this, like, brilliant solo, just using it a vocoder in a way that no one else had had to that point. And the way that the song progresses is just so brilliant. I try to highlight on the. On the episode, but just like. Like the fact that they could think of, like, we're gonna create this iconic, memorable melody, but space it out, like, kind of slow play it where it's like, you're only getting the little syllables in the beginning, and as the song progresses, you're getting a little bit more, and then the pieces start to fit together a little bit more. And by the end, it's like. You compare the end to the beginning and, like they're worlds away from each other. And it's just been this slow evolution from, like, primitive monotone robot voice to fully expressive solo, masterful solo over a disco sample. Just like. We've just never heard anything like this. It's catchy. Catchy enough to build an entire hip hop anthem on. And Kanye, Stronger, it has. I don't know, it's a brilliant song. It combines worlds in a way that only Daft Punk do. I don't know if we're going to talk about aerodynamic, if either are going to nominate us, but it's like. Like, it has that quality, the mashup quality again, where it's like, it starts out disco, super disco loop based. And then by the end, you're in a totally different place where it's, like, less disco and more robotic. Yet the magic trick is how they evolved the song from how they make that change over time, you know? So what. What do you love about this song?
- [70:34]
B
So I wanted to make sure on this episode, we talk about how. I think the reason that we paired Discovery and Kid A was we take for granted how much just the proliferation of computers and the Internet rewired how we consume art and how because music was becoming easier to access and all artists, so much of it became almost a scrapbook. You know, you get the rise of things like Tumblr, you get the rise of Instagram. You have people mashing things together that I'm not saying were never mashed together before. It was just like our consciousness, humanity. I'm getting very, like, tinfoil. Tat was expanding artistically. And when you listen to something like Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, it is a moment that perfectly, to me, encapsulates that 21st century feeling of everything is getting Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. It's like, at light speed. And Daft Punk is ahead of the curve at this point. They're predicting things that they're not even experiencing yet. And that's why I love this song. But what I want to ask you is the Kanye sample, Stronger, I think, is both the. One of the best things that happens to Daft Punk in the second half of the career. But it comes at the expense of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger as a song where I think Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is way better than the Kanye song. But the Kanye song helps recontextualize Daft Punk for a new audience. It actually. It's Kanye doing what he does a Lot of times where it's just like, hey, I know Daft Punk is huge, and Daft Punk didn't need his co sign, but I think he was able to be like, hey, Daft Punk isn't just huge, actually. They're like gods. And I'm gonna use them in a song, and I'm gonna make this pop hit, and then we get everything that happens after with them. But now when I listen to Harder, Better, Faster, Strong, I'm like, I almost know it too well. It's one of those hits where I'm like, damn. It's not as surprising as it was even, like, 20 years ago to me. Is that. Am I making any sense in terms of how your relationship to a song can change if it gets too big?
- [72:59]
A
Yeah, I think. Well, for a long time, I couldn't hear Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger without Stronger, Kanye Stronger looming over it. Yeah, because that song was so. It's a little better now. But, like, that song was everywhere for so long. And it had the effect of, like, sometimes when you hear us, like, a hit song that has a sample, and then you go back and you hear where the sample came from, and you can't really experience that song authentically because, like, there's the shadow of the hit song that samples it, like, looms over it. Like, Notorious is a good example of that. You know, the. The Biggie song. You go back to the original Notorious, and it's just like. It's always this weird experience of, like, oh, that's the hit song. And you can't. You can't really get out that. Out of your head. So I. But recently, I would say, in my experience of dissecting and I think just with, like, you know, Stronger not being one of Connie's most. Just. It hasn't aged particularly well in terms of, like, being one of his lasting hit songs. You know, it's not the. It's not the song we think of when we think of Kanye now. So I think I've been able to separate it now from that for multiple reasons and to the point where I really enjoy it. But again, yeah, I do think it has. It just has a weird legacy. It has a. Just. It's. You can't listen to the song without, like, kind of experiencing the history of it or thinking about the history of it. And especially when it gets to the actual sample part. Still to this day, when it gets to the sampled part, I'm just like, fuck. All I hear is the Kanye song.
- [74:28]
B
But what Kanye sampled to me is I'm still, like, when I go back to the source, I'm like, damn. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Once Again is a perfect song on a perfect album. You're just like, I do get why this was a massive hit. Like, the little breakdown shit, when it's going crazy, I'm like, these are masters. There's some. It's so funny, you keep saying it throughout the season where you're like, I'm not gonna even try to recreate everything that they are doing.
- [74:55]
A
It's pointless.
- [74:56]
B
Yeah, but you're just. To me, even that's a. Like, you can. A lot of people can pick up a guitar and be like, oh, I can kind of understand what this guitarist was doing.
- [75:09]
A
Right.
- [75:10]
B
What's genius about Daft Punk is like, no, we really don't know. Unless they one day come out and are just like, here's actually our secret sauce. There is a. A mystery to, like, yeah, how did they throw this?
- [75:25]
A
How do they do it?
- [75:26]
B
That.
- [75:26]
A
That solo at the end is one of those. How the. Did you do that? Like, who. Like. Because that's the thing too, where I. I don't have a sense of how good these guys are at piano or guitar. So it's like, when I hear a guitar part, I'm like, like, is that them? Are they that good? Or Digital Love, where it's like, that is like, virtuosic playing to the point where, like, even the best guitarist would struggle with that. Like, you look on YouTube and these shredders are like, they can do it, but it's hard. And so I'm just like, okay, so you definitely, like, use the computer, but not on all of it. And, like, I don't know. Just like. Yeah, and that's the part where it's like. Because they were so mysterious because they didn't want to give the secret sauce away, they are so elusive about their process most of the time, where I'm like, I can maybe try to figure this out, but I actually don't really want to because that's.
- [76:14]
B
You don't want to know the magic trick.
- [76:15]
A
You really don't. Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes it's cool. Like, Face to Face to me is a perfect example of, like, okay. Hearing the little individual elements and how they all come together is really fascinating.
- [76:27]
B
Yep.
- [76:28]
A
But as I say in the episode, I guess that one just came out like. Like, it still doesn't explain how they did it. No, it doesn't give you, like, I can show you the ingredients, but to make the pie is a totally different thing. Right. And, like, so yeah, there's. There's been a ton of moments on the season like that where I'm like, yeah, let me just. Let me just push back. Let me. Let me. Let me not get. So let me not put the microphone or the. The. The microscope too close, because I want to. I want to preserve the magic of it a little bit also. But also, by the way. By the way, a lot of those moments, I'm just not good enough. I just, frankly, not good enough.
- [77:07]
B
I don't know. Yeah. How many times are in the season, are you just like, yeah, dog. I don't want to be put out on front street because I cannot create, like, recreate that. Because sometimes even in the. I love those moments. I'm sure, like, I'm not even gonna try to do this right. No.
- [77:25]
A
Yeah. I mean, a lot of times it's like, yeah, let me play you this Jimi Hendrix solo. Like, why? What the fuck is the point? You can play the same notes, but it's not even me close to Jimi Hendrix version of it. So, like, why even try?
- [77:38]
B
Okay, so, okay, you already brought up the song, like, the Titan,
- [77:46]
A
which we need to. Okay, let's bring it up. But I gotta know, do people love this song as much as we love it? Is my, like, people hit us up because, like, I don't know if it's just like, us that love this song so dearly or is this a universal feeling that we're tapping into amongst Daft Punk fans?
- [78:03]
B
Hey, Digital Love is. Digital Love is in my personal top 10 songs of all time. I think it is like, a top. We could argue, but I would put it anywhere. Top 15, maybe top 25 of just the 21st century. Digital love is. Every single time I learn something new, I'm transported from the lyrics to the performance to the solo, to the just.
- [78:33]
A
I mean, talk about one more time. We talked about hearing the intro. Da da da da da Every time you hear the intro for it makes you feel so good.
- [78:46]
B
I dream about you in this dream
- [78:49]
A
I'm dancing right beside you and it looked.
- [78:53]
B
And it's like, to me, why I wanted to pick this song is it's one thing to make a concept album that works, which is the hardest thing you can do. Concept albums are so fucking difficult. But I think what might be even harder is making the one song on the project where you're just like, oh, to your point, where you're like. Like, there's something about this that feels so good. And then realizing that's Daft Punk's mission statement. With Discovery to create something that just like music and healing. What was the quote that you read on this season? I think, was it for homework or was it for discovery by. Was it Eno who said something about like the perfect thing about music is like feeling like it's the language of God, you know?
- [79:45]
A
Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [79:47]
B
That's Digital Love. Like this is God's language to me. I know. Like, what are you talking about, Charles? But no, I want to talk to you though, about your journey. Cause it was like I was listening to the episode and can you like, give me and the fans maybe like a behind the scenes look into like how you felt about Digital Love before this season and how your relationship to it changed. The more you dissected it, the more you learned about it.
- [80:16]
A
Yeah, I think it's like I kind of started the show with that episode with where it's like, it is my favorite part of doing the show is like. Is exactly the experience I had with the song, which I loved coming into, but is now just frankly in my top. Yeah, same with you. It's like it's my top, top 10, 10, 20 songs of all time. And it's. I don't even even just like thinking about it. I'm just like getting emotional and in a way that is like nostalgic but like even thinking about like the story of the song. And for me, obviously, I love the technical parts of it where it's like when the music reflects the emotion of the lyrics and you figure out, oh, why does this sound like a dream? Oh, well, they're using the suspended chord and they're orchestrating it it perfectly on the exact perfect synthesizer because they're opening up this dream world and you discover it feels like a dream. And then they start singing about a dream and then they talk about, I think probably experience that we've all had about falling in love with someone so much that it feels like a dream and then awakening to the reality of it not being that forever or it's not requited or whatever the circumstances may be, but where you have this vision of. Of perfection that you can't. You can't reach it, you know, and it's like it's there, but it's not. And like, so to. So to express that through lyrics is one thing. To make a song that both feels as perfect as the thing that they're. They're singing about is another thing. And that it's another thing to also layer within that a chord progression that doesn't resolve that Reflects the way in which this unrequited love was experienced. And I. Even if you're not that. I'm a true believer of, like. Even if you're not technically aware of that quality of the song, you feel it. That is one of the reasons why you're saying I'm transported. It's one of the reasons why we're getting choked up just thinking about the song, because it captures that. And I can explain that through harmony, but that's only not even half of it, right? There's something else that we can't define about the song that. Where all the elements are working together. Lyrics, harmony, instrumentation. It's exactly why music exists. It's like, it is a song in a moment like this where there's a universal feeling that is captured and made timeless through this piece of art. And it's. It's. It's a weird song to talk about in this way because it does feel so, like, light hearted. Da da da da da. Like, you know, like the.
- [82:53]
B
But there's a high and low of it, though, where it's like, it's lighthearted and it's soft and it's. Last night I had a dream about you. And it's mirroring. Everything you're saying is mirroring the quality of love, of that thing that, oh, my gosh, I'm on a cloud, I'm on a dream, but I can't attain it. And then it's the high and low of like, oh, you got the softness. The guitar solo comes in and it's giving you that adrenaline rush almost, that aggression of like. Love feels like that too. I'm losing my mind. I am on a high, but I'm on a low. And it's soft, but it's hard. And it's just. That's what I love about Discovery, is that childlike quality of like, oh, you guys are using music and lyrics and God's language to put together something about a human experience that I can't really fully just express with. With words. Like, there's. And I was like, that's why you have to pick Digital Love. And maybe we're like, I think most people love this song, but easily, to me, this is just. It's the best song.
- [84:02]
A
Yeah, dude. It's like, oh, it's absolutely incredible. It's such like, fucking play this at my funeral.
- [84:09]
B
It's like one of the songs, you know what I mean? Wait, so now I also have to ask. Yo, I gotta check in on your fam. Obviously, when you're in this process of making these. Making these seasons. Your daughters, your wife, everybody's probably hearing this music a lot. What has that experience been? Like, are they, like, pro Daft Punk? Or, like, turn this off? Like, what have you been playing it around them?
- [84:33]
A
It's been. It's interesting because my daughter. My older daughter is now getting to the age where I'm not cool. And so. So any. Anything that I do, I don't think she wants anything to do with just starting to get a little. It's not quite therapy, but we're getting shades of it. So she's kind of sick of Daft Punk, I think. I'm trying to think of it in her shoes. Like, Daft Punk, to her, is probably what I felt about. Like. I mean, I'm trying to, like, the monkeys or something, you know, like, it's the. The age difference is exactly kind of that. You know what I mean? To the. Like, my. What my parents were listening to when they were kids. So I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt there. But my youngest is still young enough to be like, oh, that robot voice is really cool. Let's play that. Or that. That weird synth sound is really cool. Let's, like, hear that again. And let's make, like, weird things with our hands that, like, accompany it. Like, we try to.
- [85:26]
B
Like.
- [85:27]
A
She always tries to, like, put into her hand gestures what the song sounds like. So she has a. Just a ton of fun with Daft Punk. Like, she loves, like, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. She loves, like, Technologic. She loves all the robot songs.
- [85:40]
B
And that's the part of Daft Punk that I also love, where it's like, you can play some of these songs for, like, a young kid, and they're like, yo, that robot's. It's like. It's like the Muppets. You're just like, I technically know that there's a human behind this robot, but it does. Like, it doesn't feel like it.
- [85:57]
A
Yeah, yeah. And when you're a kid, it's a robot. You know, it's like, that's just a robot. You're not thinking about the human. It's just. That sounds like a cool robot.
- [86:05]
B
Are we ready? Cause the song that you're gonna nominate to me is arguably, like, Aerodynamic is probably my personal favorite after Digital Love. But the song you have to nominate to me is, like, the. Is in the running for the best song off this project is in the running for one of their best songs ever. To me is my. On a technical level, the number Two song for me on this project.
- [86:29]
A
Okay. Before I get there, though, it was kind of a tough battle between this, what I'm gonna nominate, and Veritas Quo. Okay, we gotta just shout out Veritas Quo because it's a. It's a perfect song. It's so good. I mean, it's so good. That song is incredible. It's a hypnotic spell that you just want to live inside forever. It is absolutely perfect in every way. It is like, again, it has the ineffable, like, why does this work? Well, there's some few technical reasons for it, but it's just a master groove with, like a. Just a mood that will take you over and take you for a journey. That pairing of Voyager and Veritas Quo is so sick. Like, I love that part of the album. It's such an experience, such a ride. So I had to shout out Veritas Quo. But you know where I'm going We gotta go face to face Gotta go face to face. Dude, this song. I mean, I've talked about this song a lot. We've talked about it a lot. We. This. This episode is coming off the heels of that episode. So I don't know how much we need to really go into the technicality of it because it's going to be clear to everyone that listened to that episode. This song is a masterpiece. Like, it is an absolute master class of sampling. It is the highest degree of sampling, I think, that is possible. And it just sounds good. It's like another one of those things where, yeah, the technical breakdown is fascinating. And it's like, yeah, how the. Did they ever piece this together? But you would never think about that, really, when you're listening to the song, because it's just a cool groove that's just super interesting and infectious, just like any other one of their songs. It doesn't sacrifice listenability for the technicality of it, which is, I think, one of the hardest things you can do. Like, again, like I try to say on season all the time, on paper, this doesn't work. 42 samples over a house beat chopped in 11 second or less. Fragments of little. These little bites and assembling them doesn't. It can work, but it shouldn't be this catchy. It's a thing about Face to Face where it's like. It's so fucking catchy. And then they pair it with the most human thing ever, the human voice creating that contrast. Again, it's not as extreme as pairing the disco sample of aerodynamic with a, you know, heavy METAL FINGER TAPPING GUITAR SOLO but pairing the. A bare, naked, unaffected human voice with the collage, chaotic collage of all these samples is that same intuition of like. Like, yeah, this doesn't. Shouldn't work, but it's going to. And so. And yeah, thematically, I think it's really, really powerful in terms of, like, what Todd Edwards says he was singing about. It's in three layers of, like, I'm talking about relationship potentially, but more so I'm talking about my. Myself facing myself and then also facing God. So having that three. I don't think you've listened to this episode, but that's kind of the level that Todd Edwards said he was working on. Because this was supposed to be like the climax of the Discovery film was supposed to be the robots getting into the climactic battle scene and then like a cloud of smoke appearing and then a mirror being revealed to reveal the twist ending, which was they were fighting themselves the whole time. So that was the conception of Face to Face. And so understanding that and then everything about this song is just brilliant on every single level. But, I mean, what do you. Why do you like it?
- [90:10]
B
It's just. You've already touched upon it. Sampling, to me, is one of my favorite techniques in all of music. It's just something. We've been talking about it the whole episode. I just. My brain doesn't necessarily work that way in terms of just, like, being able to listen. Like, I can listen to a song and tell you what the best part of the song is. It's way different to listen to a song and tell you what the best second of the song was. And it's like, if you listen to Face to Face, it does not like, the song sounds good, but it is. You already talked about it. It is one of those songs that rewards, like, actually, if I break this down and listen to every sample. Go listen to your episode. This is releasing your Face to Face episode. Released it on this Tuesday. We're recording this on Thursday. I'm like, I'm excited to listen to that episode because I've seen the videos of it, but I haven't seen any videos that are actually going into the technical aspects of, like, okay, these are all the samples in a vacuum. How do you build a song around it? What are the other techniques under this? That is making it, once again, the word. We keep saying effortless. But as a fan, was Face to Face, the most difficult episode so far this season to put together. Like what. What was the process of just, like, locating the samples and just Kind of breaking down the song.
- [91:31]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's. I credited it in the episode itself because I wanted to make sure that I did in terms of like, this has been a decades long journey of people like me.
- [91:42]
B
Yeah.
- [91:43]
A
Combing. Because Daft Punk didn't credit. Officially credit any of these samples. So they're just out there and it's incredibly hard to hear a split second of a song and know, oh, that's from Face to Face, no less. Actually like Happening. Like, however you came upon that song is one. You know what I mean? These are like obscure 70s records. So even to know that this. To even recognize where the sample was, or even to know that it would be in a song like this, it's like I don't even know how some of these samples were discovered. So it's been like this fan, you know, Die Hard fans have dedicated themselves to finding these samples. And then a lot of the videos on YouTube are already kind of like showing you, you know, here's where it is in the original song and here's where it is in the. In Face to Face. And then a lot of people do have done recreations, but haven't really broken it down. It was more like, here's my recreation of it. I'm going to play it for you. Not necessarily showing you the piece, the puzzle coming together. That's what I try to highlight and contribute to this, which was using the foundation of knowledge that these Die Hard Daft Punk fans have accumulated over the past decade or two decades, really. And really piecing it together in a way that I hope shows you everything coming together, which was incredibly laborious to do. And I would say shout out to Kevin and Yuli, our editors, who also had to splice in for all 40. Whatever samples and the original sources. So, like, if you look at the. The sheet of music excerpts, we'd make a spreadsheet of all the music that's used. Like it's like hundreds of excerpts in that. In that one episode.
- [93:23]
B
I wish you could put up a screen grab of just like the edited app so you could see the clips.
- [93:29]
A
Oh, yeah, Maybe Kevin can do that. Because I think that'd be interesting.
- [93:32]
B
I just like to maybe show them like. Like a regular episode of Just like, this is usually how many files we have.
- [93:38]
A
Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy, but it was super. I mean, it was so fun. Like, I didn't know. I wasn't sure if it was gonna be too much to like actually put the puzzle deep because I was like, do I just do it like the youtubes do and just like, here's the original. Here's it. Here's the little fragment. But I had so much fun actually laying it out on the grid and actually recreating it. Because you'll hear in the episode I play, here's just this, that one snippet over the. The drums. And then I bring everything else back so you kind of hear how it comes together with everything. And that process is so cool because it's like every time on, there's only a few samples in the song where you're like, oh, that sounds like a sample. I can. I can hear that becoming like the foundation of something. Most of the time it's just this little like, or whatever the it is. And you're like, like, how is this going to work? And then you hear how it works, like, oh, okay. These things are really working together in a way that when separated, like, in the true essence of the idea of, like, the sum being more than, you know, the individual parts, like, it lays that concept out, like, incredibly in terms of like, yeah, hearing a blip and then hearing it within with everything else. It's like, so cool. It's like a true musical mosaic. And I think it is. What I try to also highlight on that episode is like the history of sampling where we've had this. The idea of like, in classical music, you would quote another classical piece. That was a primitive way of sampling, but composers have had that referential intuition since we've been making music. You know what I mean? And so to hear sampling, that same intuition hundreds of years later using technology, but that same intuition of like, yeah, I want to quote this thing. I want to make something new out of something old. That is. That is something we've been doing as humans forever. And I think that really comes to like, some kind of climax with Face to Face where it's like Daft Punk Todd Edwards coming together again like a Romanthony this. Putting a spotlight on a guy that was doing really weird stuff who is the inventor of this kind of micro sampling technique, bringing him into the fold and also, like doing like, again, a Kanye esque thing where it's like, not only is he going to help create the production of the song with his micro sampling technique. Oh, yeah, by the way, you've never sung on a song yourself. We're going to actually have you sing.
- [96:03]
B
Yeah, we're not going to.
- [96:04]
A
We're not going to affect your voice at all. You're actually just going to sing, like, using you in A way that you know you've never been used before. In the same way DJ Sneak Meek wrote the lyrics to Digital Love. Like, what? What? Why would you have this DJ that's never written lyrics that we know of. Why did you even think to do that?
- [96:23]
B
And then I wish there was just more to your point. Footage from these, like. From these, like, sessions, so you could just be like, yo to Edwards. Be like, yo, what was it like just being in the room? Like, just. Or not even act like. Like, Gini Embassy was like, all right, sing on the song.
- [96:41]
A
I'm like, what?
- [96:42]
B
Like, what? Yeah, why'd you bring me here? Or DJC'd be like, hey, write this. You're just like, yeah, what? I didn't think that was why you guys brought me here. All right, yo.
- [96:51]
A
Face to face. Okay, so face to face. Final nomination for Discovery. So I went face to face and harder, better, faster, stronger. You went Digital Love. And one more time, Shout out Aerodynamic. Shout out Crescendolls. Shout out Voyager. Veridisk. I mean, we didn't talk about something about us. This is a true masterpiece. We're Every. Pretty much 80% of the songs could have a case of being nominated. But let's get to the elimination part of the episode. So now we need to take whittle our own picks down to one each. So we're going to each get one pick off of each album to take into the Royal Rumble finale, where all our finalists of songs will duke it out until we eliminate and come to agreement on the last song standing. The greatest Daft Punk album or Daft Punk song of all time. Excuse me. So let's start with where we are. I think it's going to be easy call for you. Or actually, maybe not Digital Love. Or one more time. Is it easy call for you, or is there any case to be made?
- [97:47]
B
I think, you know, I think the fans know. It has to be Digital Love. I thought maybe you like. I was like, damn. Can we. Can we pick Digital Love? Because I think we always have this conversation of what are we rewarding? Are we rewarding people's most known song, biggest songs? How much does that affect. Digital Love is a huge song, but it's not the biggest. But this is our fucking show. It has to be Digital Love. That's the number one overall pick for this episode. It's easy to me.
- [98:15]
A
Okay, I agree. And I would have picked that to myself. So here's a weird little bit of predicament, because talk me through this. I'm gonna. I'm gonna keep One More Time on the board because this is a group effort, and I. I can steal that song if I want, if it's the right song. So One More time. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Face to Face. This is. This is the exercise. This is the hardest part of the exercise. What do we honor in an exercise like this? Because One More Time feels symbolically like it should be in the final conversation. I think Face to Face is a showcase of the virtuosity that makes Daft Punk great. It also is a great song. But symbolically, in this exercise of representing Daft Punk in a single song, I think it showcases their technical ability in a way that is very unique. But Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger has that same virtuosic element with the. With the vocoider and the solo. It's also a huge hit. It is also associated with another big hip hop crossover hit by one of the best producers of all time in Kanye. So I could see that making a case, too. I mean, so.
- [99:27]
B
All right, can I. Can I tell you. Cause it's easy for me. It's easy.
- [99:30]
A
Oh, really? Okay.
- [99:32]
B
You know me. Charles is Mr. Billboard. I love a hit. I love the pop song. I just love it. Every single time, I'm like, fuck the deep cut. Give me, like, just give me the sugar. But for once, I'm gonna pivot. It's not even a question. Face to Face. Oh, Face to Face is easy. Like, it's not just to me. This isn't just like an alien. Like, you could give it to an alien record. This is a desert island. If you had, like, one Daft Punk song to take to a desert, deserted island, you could listen to Face to Face and be like, I'm learning something new every day. Like, you could give this to an alien and be like, if you want to understand electronic music, house music, just what makes just humans dance and feel is Face to Face. It's just like, hey, I get it. People are like, you didn't choose Harder, better, fats or Stronger. One More Time. I'm like, I don't care. Face to face. It's easy to me.
- [100:25]
A
Okay, so this is interesting because in my gut, that's the song I wanted to take. And what I love about this exercise and what the potential of it is, if we're going to go this route is picking a song that maybe is not the obvious pick, but when in this conversation, with the little influence that this podcast has, we can put a song like Face to Face on the pedestal, we could say, no, this song is A masterpiece. It is every bit of the genius of One More Time and Harder, Better, stronger. Look at this song more closely. So I think because. Because I was. My heart was already leaning towards Face to Face. And I like that idea. Fuck it. Let's do it face to face. Let's do it.
- [101:06]
B
Fuck this. I thought I was gonna have to fight you more. I was like, bro, just pick Face to Face. They could fucking yell at us. This is not. To me, this isn't. If you want to type in on Google best Daft Punk songs, you're gonna see fucking one more time, you're gonna see Harder, better, faster, stronger. No, we're going face to face. We're going digital, honoring the shit.
- [101:24]
A
It's a great moment to say another little part of the show that we didn't talk about because Justin's not here, but Justin Sayles, our producer, will be sitting on part two of Daft Punk. And he gets every season a coach's challenge.
- [101:37]
B
Yes.
- [101:37]
A
Which means he can pick one song out of the entire season, a song that we didn't select, that he thinks should be in the running. And so I think this might be something he's going to think about in terms of One More Time, Harder, Better, Faster. Or maybe it's another song off Discovery.
- [101:52]
B
He's going to arrive, he's going to listen to this and be like, all right, this is what happens when I don't pop into. You guys go off the fucking reservation. Oh, my God.
- [102:02]
A
Okay. I love it, though. Okay. Digital love Face to Face homework. I mean, do we need to bring. It's easy for both of us. Yeah, I think it is. I'll go around the world.
- [102:11]
B
I'm going to go defunct. It's just that, to me, was so anticlimactic. Cause it's just like, we know what we were gonna pick. Defunk, to me is just like, there's nothing better on that album to me than that riff. There's just nothing.
- [102:27]
A
No, Defunk is the. I mean, Defunk's the one around the World has a case, but Defunk's the one. If we wanted to do the. Something similar, I think we could have put. I mean, I don't know if teachers deserves to be in the conversation. That was a more symbolic pitch. Even Alive. Yeah. I don't know. I couldn't have make the case for Alive over Around the World.
- [102:45]
B
So let's not. Come on.
- [102:46]
A
We already know what it is.
- [102:48]
B
We already know. This is honestly one of my favorite episodes we've ever done. Like, usually I love when we're in person, I wish we were in person, but it's like, damn, I really got to gush and be a fan of just, like, not only this season that you're doing, but just of just, like, Daft Punk. The older I get, I'm like, damn, these are my guys.
- [103:10]
A
This is like, this is the me going to die on the hill. At 80 years old, daft Punk was the fucking best ever. I'm going to be telling my kids about Daft Punk more than anyone else, I think. I feel like. Because Radiohead, like, you guys, everyone knows my love for Radiohead, but they already have that reverence.
- [103:26]
B
And I don't think.
- [103:26]
A
I don't think Daft Punk quite is on that level historically yet. Am I wrong in that you think?
- [103:32]
B
No, I think they're on that level. I just think because once again, in our culture, because we almost denigrate electronic music, we think it's lesser. We think it's not as complex. I think the work that you're doing on this season is shining a light on, hey, something doesn't have to be lyric driven to have depth, to have quality, to have introspection. It just, like, it takes someone like you being like, hey, let me contextualize the history of this. Let me contextualize who the single. Let me contextualize. There might not be a lot of lyrics, but the repetition is also telling you something. Sometimes I think for electronic music, house music, you just need to give it a little bit more time and a little bit more context so that we talk about it in the same way that we talk about a Radiohead or a Beyonce or a Kendrick.
- [104:25]
A
Right, right, right. All right, beautiful. So we're gonna follow this up at the end of the season. So after the season finale of dissecting, we'll come back for part two, cover the rest of the albums, and then make our final selection. And then after that last long standing proper season, which I'm very excited about, we'll be in studio, too, which I'm very excited to see you in person again.
- [104:45]
B
We're gonna be talking about, you know, an artist that I would say is more controversial than Daft Punk, you know, is a little bit more vocal than Daft Punk.
- [104:56]
A
Not Kanye, though, though. Let's not get.
- [104:58]
B
No.
- [104:59]
A
I don't want to get people's hopes up or. Or. Or fears up, so. All right, Charles, thank you. I'll see you soon.
- [105:06]
B
Yo. Thank you.