Discovery (Daft Punk album)

''Discovery'' is the second studio album by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, released on 12 March 2001 by Virgin Records. It marks a shift from the Chicago house sound prevalent on their first studio record, ''Homework'' (1997), to a house style more heavily inspired by disco, post-disco, garage house, and R&B. Comparing their stylistic approach to their previous album, band member Thomas Bangalter described ''Discovery'' as an exploration of song structures and musical forms whereas ''Homework'' was "raw" electronic music. He also described ''Discovery'' as a reflection of the duo's childhood memories, when they listened to music with a more playful and innocent viewpoint.

The album was recorded at Bangalter's home in Paris between 1998 and 2000. The album features extensive sampling; some samples are from older records, while others were recorded by Daft Punk playing live instruments themselves. Fellow electronic musicians Romanthony, Todd Edwards, and DJ Sneak collaborated on some tracks both musically and lyrically. For the album's music videos, the group developed a concept involving the merging of science fiction with the entertainment industry. Inspired by their childhood love for Japanese anime, the duo collaborated with Leiji Matsumoto to produce '' Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem'', an anime film with the entirety of ''Discovery'' as the soundtrack. The film features no dialogue, with few sound effects.

In the lead-up to ''Discovery''s release, the duo adopted robot costumes, claiming they had become robots as a result of an accident in their studio. They also launched Daft Club, a website which featured exclusive tracks and other bonus material. ''Discovery'' was a critical and commercial success, peaking high across several charts internationally on release. Critics praised Daft Punk for innovating the house music scene as they had done with ''Homework''. The album produced six singles; " One More Time" was its most successful, and became a club hit. In 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' included ''Discovery'' at number 236 in its updated list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Background

After their debut album ''Homework'' was released, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo spent most of 1997 touring on the Daftendirektour. For the first half of 1998, the duo was focused on their own personal labels, while also working on the video collection '' D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes''. In 1999 and 2000, their time was split between making music for their own labels and recording ''Discovery''. Bangalter noted that ''Homework'' influenced many other artists to mimic its sound, prompting Daft Punk to pursue a different direction to better distinguish themselves.

Recording

''Discovery'' was recorded in the duo's own studio, Daft House, located at Bangalter's home in Paris, France.''Discovery'' (liner notes). Daft Punk. Virgin Records, a division of Universal Music Group. 2001. Daft Punk started work on the album in 1998, and produced it over the course of two years. Bangalter and Homem-Christo made music together and separately, in a similar process to their debut album ''Homework''. Although they used the same equipment as they had for ''Homework'', the duo sought to record tracks that were more concise than their previous work. For ''Discovery'', the group used different samplers and synthesizers, including Akai MPC, E-mu SP-1200, Oberheim DMX and LinnDrum. The track "Short Circuit", which features a Sequential Circuits drum pattern, was previously heard in Daft Punk's 1997 live sets. For vocoders, the group used a Roland SVC-350, and a DigiTech Vocalist. Production on the album also incorporated a PC with Auto-Tune and an early version of Logic. Every track on ''Discovery'' uses a different phase shifter. The album was mastered by Nilesh Patel, who also had mastered ''Homework''.

One of the first tracks to come out of the ''Discovery'' sessions, " One More Time", was completed in 1998 and was left "sitting on a shelf" until its single release in 2000. After completing "Too Long" early in the album's production, Daft Punk decided that they "didn't want to do 14 more house tracks" in the way the genre is usually defined, and thus set out to incorporate a variety of styles for the record. The album features musical contributions from Romanthony, Todd Edwards, and DJ Sneak. Homem-Christo noted that Romanthony and Edwards were two of the producers that had a big influence on Daft Punk. The duo had wanted to work with them on ''Homework'', but found it difficult to convince them to do so since Daft Punk were still relatively unknown. DJ Sneak wrote the lyrics to "Digital Love" and assisted in the song's production.

Music

Theme

''Discovery'' is recognized as a concept album. It relates strongly to Daft Punk's childhood memories, incorporating their love of cinema and character. Thomas Bangalter specified that the album deals with the duo's experiences growing up in the decade between 1975 and 1985, rather than it just being a tribute to the music of that period. The record was designed to reflect a playful, honest and open-minded attitude toward listening to music. Bangalter compared it to the state of childhood when one does not judge or analyze music. Bangalter noted the stylistic approach of the album was in contrast to that of their previous effort. "''Homework'' ..was a way to say to the rock kids, like, 'Electronic music is cool'. ''Discovery'' was the opposite, of saying to the electronic kids, 'Rock is cool, you know? You can like that.'" He elaborated that ''Homework'' had been "a rough and raw thing" focused on sound production and texture, whereas the goal with ''Discovery'' was to explore song structures and new musical forms. This change in sound was inspired by Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker".

Composition

''Discovery'' is a departure from Daft Punk's previous house sound. In his review for AllMusic, John Bush wrote that ''Discovery'' is "definitely the New York garage edition" of ''Homework''. He added that Daft Punk produced a "glammier, poppier" sound of Eurodisco and R&B by over-embellishing their pitch-bend, and vocoder effects, including loops of divas, synth-guitars, and electric piano. '' Stylus Magazine''s Keith Gwillim asserted that it is a disco album that draws on the genre's "danceable" and "sappy" elements, including its processed vocals and "prefabricated" guitar solos. Other critics also described the album as post-disco. Retrospectively, ''Uproxx'' said the album also incorporates French house.

The album's opening track, " One More Time", features heavily Auto-Tuned and compressed vocals from Romanthony. The next track, "Aerodynamic", has a funk groove, halt for an electric guitar solo, and ending with a separate "spacier" electronic segment. This solo, which contains guitar arpeggios, was compared to Yngwie Malmsteen by '' Pulse!''. " Digital Love" contains a solo performed by the duo using a Wurlitzer piano, vintage synthesizers and music sequencers; it incorporates elements of pop, new wave, jazz, funk and disco. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", the fourth track on the album is an electro-leaning song. It is followed by "Crescendolls", an instrumental. "Nightvision" is an ambient track. "Superheroes" leans toward the " acid minimalism" of ''Homework''. "High Life" is built over a "gibberish" vocal sample, and contains an organ-like section. " Something About Us" is a downtempo song, with digitally processed vocals by Daft Punk and lounge rhythms.

"Voyager" has guitar riffs, harp-like 80s synths, and a funky bassline. "Veridis Quo" is a "faux-orchestral" synthesizer baroque song; according to Angus Harrison, its title is a pun on the words "very disco". "Short Circuit" is an electro-R&B song with breakbeats and programmed drum patterns. " Face to Face" is a dance-pop song featuring vocals from Todd Edwards, and is more pop-oriented than the other tracks on ''Discovery''. In the context of the album, Bangalter noted that the preceding track "Short Circuit" represented the act of shutting down, and that "Face to Face" represents regaining consciousness and facing reality. "Too Long", the album's closer, is a ten-minute-long electro-R&B song.

Samples

A significant amount of sampling is present on the album. Rather than creating new music using only the samples, Daft Punk worked with them by writing and performing additional parts. The ''Discovery'' liner notes specify permitted use of samples for four tracks on the album: Part of George Duke's "I Love You More" is featured in "Digital Love"; Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby" was sampled for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"; The Imperials' song "Can You Imagine" is used for "Crescendolls"; Barry Manilow's "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed" is credited for "Superheroes". It has been observed that "One More Time" contains a sample of Eddie Johns' song "More Spell on You", despite it being uncredited in the ''Discovery'' liner notes. ''The Los Angeles Times'' confirmed this following the breakup of Daft Punk and found that Daft Punk does pay royalties for the sample twice a year to the label, GM Musipro.

Several websites list many other samples present on the album, but Bangalter has stated that half of the samples he had seen listed are not true. He also stated the sampling they do is legitimately done, not something they try to hide. Bangalter elaborated that the newly recorded elements were implemented in a way that was equivalent to "creating fake samples ..where people think there are samples from disco records or funk records." Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo estimated that half of the sampled material on ''Discovery'' was played live by the duo, and emphasized that the resulting quality of the music was more important than the ego of who played which instruments.

Promotion and release

Daft Punk initially planned to release every song on ''Discovery'' as a single, according to Orla Lee-Fisher, who was head of marketing for Virgin Records UK at the time, although this plan was eventually shelved. "One More Time" was released in 2000, ahead of the album's release. The album was available on 12 March 2001, with singles of "Aerodynamic", "Digital Love", "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", "Something About Us", and "Face to Face" launched afterward.

The ideas for the album's music videos formed during the early ''Discovery'' recording sessions. The album was originally intended to be accompanied by "a live-action film with each song being a part of the film", according to Todd Edwards. The band decided instead to concentrate on an anime production. Daft Punk's concept for the film involved the merging of science fiction with entertainment industry culture.''Interstella 5555'' DVD insert, 2003. The duo recalled watching Japanese anime as children, including favorites such as ''Captain Harlock'', ''Grendizer'', and ''Candy Candy''. All three brought the album and the completed story to Tokyo in the hope of creating the film with their childhood hero, Leiji Matsumoto, who had created ''Captain Harlock''. After Matsumoto joined the team as visual supervisor, Shinji Shimizu had been contacted to produce the animation and Kazuhisa Takenouchi to direct the film. With the translation coordination of Tamiyuki "Spike" Sugiyama, production began in October 2000 and ended in April 2003. The result of the collaboration was an anime film, '' Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem'', which features the entirety of ''Discovery'' as the soundtrack.

Daft Punk adopted robot costumes in the lead up to ''Discovery''s release. The group told the press they were working in their studio at 9:09 am on 9 September 1999, when their sampler exploded. They had to undergo reconstructive surgery, and, regaining consciousness, they realized they had become robots.

Shortly before the album's release, the group launched Daft Club, a website that offered exclusive tracks and other bonus material. Every ''Discovery'' CD included a Daft Club membership card bearing a unique number that provided personalized access to the website. Bangalter said this was "our way of rewarding people who buy the CD". The service provided by the site ended in 2003; most of the tracks were then compiled into the remix album '' Daft Club''.

Commercial performance

The album peaked at number two in the United Kingdom and France, and number twenty-three in the United States. The album also debuted at number two on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 13,850 copies in the country in its first week. The album was certified triple platinum in France (in 2007) for shipments denoting 600,000 copies. As a result of sales, ''Discovery'' was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 11 October 2010.

As of May 2013, the album has sold 802,000 copies in the US. The album's lead single " One More Time" was its most successful, peaking at number one on the French charts and the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Songs charts, and peaked within the top ten on seven other charts. It remained the group's most successful single until the release of " Get Lucky" in 2013. The album's fifth single, " Face to Face", reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Songs chart in 2004. ''Discovery'' had sold at least 2.6 million copies as of 2005.

Critical reception

''Discovery'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 74, based on 19 reviews. AllMusic's John Bush said that, with their comprehensive productions and loops of manifold elements, Daft Punk had developed a sound that was "worthy of bygone electro-pop technicians from Giorgio Moroder to Todd Rundgren to Steve Miller." '' Q'' wrote that the album was vigorous and innovative in its exploration of "old questions and spent ideals", hailing it as "a towering, persuasive tour de force" that "transcends the dance label" with no shortage of ideas, humor, or "brilliance". ''Q'' named ''Discovery'' one of the best 50 albums of 2001.

Joshua Clover, writing in '' Spin'', dubbed ''Discovery'' disco's "latest triumph" and said although it "flags a bit" before the end, the opening stretch of songs was on-par with albums such as Prince's ''Sign o' the Times'' (1987) and Nirvana's ''Nevermind'' (1991). Stephen Dalton from ''NME'' found the record's pop art ideas enthralling and credited Daft Punk for "re-inventing the mid-'80s as the coolest pop era ever". In ''Entertainment Weekly'', Will Hermes wrote that the "beat editing and EQ wizardry" still excite after ''Homework'', despite the newly imbued sense of humor. ''Mixmag'' called it "the perfect non-pop pop album" and said Daft Punk had "altered the course of dance music for the second time".

Ben Ratliff from ''Rolling Stone'' was less impressed and wrote that few songs on ''Discovery'' matched the grandiosity of "One More Time". He found most of them "muddled – not only in the spectrum between serious and jokey but in its sense of an identity." In ''The Guardian'', Alexis Petridis felt Daft Punk's attempt to "salvage" older musical references resembled ''Homework'', but was less coherent and successful. ''Pitchfork'' critic Ryan Schreiber found the " prog and disco" hybrid "relatively harmless" and said that it was not "meant to be judged on its lyrics", which he dismissed as amateurish and commonplace. Robert Christgau, writing in ''The Village Voice'', facetiously said the album may appeal to young enthusiasts of Berlin techno and computing, but it was too " French" and "" for American tastes. In a retrospective review for ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'' (2004), Douglas Wolk gave ''Discovery'' three and a half stars and wrote that "the more aft Punkdumb the album down, the funkier it gets" with an emphasis on hooks over songs.

Legacy

''Pitchfork'' named ''Discovery'' the 12th-best album of 2000–04 and the third-best of the decade. In 2021, ''Pitchfork'' included ''Discovery'' on its list of review scores they "would change if they could", upgrading its score from 6.4 to 10 out of 10. ''Pitchfork'' critic Noah Yoo wrote: "If scores are meant to indicate a work's longevity or impact, the original review is invalidated by the historic record. Daft Punk's second album, ''Discovery'', is the centerpiece of their career, an album that transcended the robots' club roots and rippled through the decades that followed."

In 2009, Rhapsody named ''Discovery'' the 12th-best album of the decade. It was also named the fourth best album of the decade by Resident Advisor. In 2012, ''Rolling Stone'' named ''Discovery'' the 30th-greatest EDM album. ''Rolling Stone'' included it at number 236 in its 2020 " 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. The album also was included on BBC Radio 1's ''Masterpieces'' in December 2009 presented by Zane Lowe, highlighting its growing standing over the decade.

Several songs were sampled by other artists. Kanye West's song " Stronger" from the album '' Graduation'' features a vocal sample of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". A live performance of "Stronger" was featured at the 2008 Grammy Awards, with Daft Punk performing in their trademark pyramid structure while Kanye West was on stage rapping. Wiley's song " Summertime" from the album ''See Clear Now'' features a sample of "Aerodynamic". Jazmine Sullivan's song " Dream Big" from the album '' Fearless'' features a sample of "Veridis Quo". "One More Time" was sampled in the Drake and 21 Savage song Circo Loco off of their album Her Loss released in 2022.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from ''Discovery'' liner notes.
* Daft Punk – vocals (tracks 3, 4, 9), vocoders, sequencers, sampling, synthesizers, Wurlitzer electric piano, guitars, bass, talkbox, drum machines, production, concept, art direction
* Romanthony – vocals (tracks 1, 14), co-production (track 14)
* Todd Edwards – vocals and co-production (track 13)
* Nilesh Patel – mastering
* Alex & Martin – concept, art direction
* Cedric Hervet – concept, art direction
* Gildas Loaëc – concept, art direction
* Simon Scott – concept, art direction
* Daniel Vangarde – concept, art direction
* Pedro Winter, Alterian – bionics engineering
* Tamiyuki "Spike" Sugiyama – Tokyo connector

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Additional notes

Citations

Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

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Virgin Records Daft Punk official website for ''Discovery''

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2001 albums
Daft Punk albums
Albums produced by Thomas Bangalter
Albums produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
Concept albums
Disco albums by French artists
Post-disco albums
French house albums
Virgin Records albums