Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

The album that brought Daft Punk to the biggest stage of their career, and what would prove to be their final statement. Released on May 17, 2013 after eight years of near silence, Random Access Memories arrived as one of the most anticipated and meticulously constructed records of its era, the product of four years of recording across studios in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Hollywood, and a deliberate act of defiance against the EDM-dominated landscape of the time.

Where their peers were building tracks around laptop programs and festival-ready bass drops, Daft Punk recruited some of the finest session musicians alive and made a record almost entirely with live instrumentation, limiting electronic elements to drum machines, a custom-built modular synthesizer, and vintage vocoders. The approach was a love letter to the late 1970s and early 1980s Los Angeles music scene, the era and city that shaped their deepest musical obsessions, and the collaborators they assembled to realize that vision read like a dream. Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder, Pharrell Williams, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Panda Bear, Todd Edwards, and DJ Falcon all appear, each contributing to what one critic called the smartest dance album since disco itself.

The results were extraordinary by any measure. "Get Lucky," featuring Nile Rodgers and Pharrell, became the duo's first and only UK number one and one of the most ubiquitous songs of the decade. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, was certified platinum in the United States, and swept the 2014 Grammy Awards, winning Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and two further awards. It remains one of the defining albums of its era, a grandiose, deeply personal statement from two artists at the absolute peak of their powers making the music they truly loved.

This 180g vinyl pressing includes a digital download.