''Alive 2007'' is the second live album by the French electronic music duo

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...

, released on 19 November 2007 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

. It features Daft Punk's performance at the

Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy Accor Arena (originally known as the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy), also known as Bercy Arena, is an indoor sports arena and List of concert halls, concert hall in the neighbourhood of Bercy, on the Boulevard de Bercy, in the 12th arrondisse ...

arena in Paris on 14 June 2007 during their Alive tour.Exclusive: Daft Punk Unveil Live Album Details
Spin.com. Retrieved on 16 September 2007.Alive 2007 teaser
daft-musique.com. Retrieved on 16 September 2007. The set features an assortment of Daft Punk's music, incorporated with synthesisers, mixers and live effects."Daft Punk's Magical Pyramid/Spaceship: Infiltrated!"
. pitchfork.com. Retrieved on 10 December 2007 The retail release of ''Alive 2007'' in North America was delayed to 4 December 2007 due to production problems.Daft Punk's Newsletter
EMI. Retrieved on 2 November 2007. It was released as a

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

on 20 November 2007, and was released in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2008.Daft Punk's YouTube channel
youtube.com. Retrieved on 16 September 2007. A performance of "

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a song by French duo Daft Punk, released on 13 October 2001 as the fourth single from their second studio album ''Discovery (Daft Punk album), Discovery''. A live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronge ...

" was released as a single. The album won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2009.

Content

''Alive 2007'' is taken from Daft Punk's performance at the

, Paris, on 14 June 2007. The performance includes remixed versions of many of their most popular tracks such as mixing vocal elements from "Too Long" with new music,Bercy Review
thedaftclub.com. Retrieved on 13 September 2007. and mixed elements of "Television Rules the Nation" with "Crescendolls", " Around the World" with "

" and "Superheroes" with " Human After All". The album includes elements of the

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

song " Touch It", the original version of which was produced by

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American rapper and record producer. Born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ in 1994. At the age ...

featuring a sample of " Technologic". Also featured are elements of Gabrielle's " Forget About the World", the original version of which was remixed by Daft Punk for her single. The encore of the ''Alive 2007'' set features Bangalter's side projects: Stardust's " Music Sounds Better with You" and

Together ''ToGetHer'' (, aka Superstar Express) is a 2009 Taiwanese drama starring Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit, Rainie Yang and George Hu. It was produced by Comic International Productions ( 可米國際影視事業股份有限公司) and directed by Linzi ...

's self-titled track "

".''Alive 2007'' (

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

, a division of EMI Music France. 2007. The special edition of the album includes a 50-page book containing photographs from the tour taken by DJ Falcon, as well as the encore on a second disc. In December 2014, two vinyl editions of the album were released. The first is standard black dual LP, while the second is a limited edition collectors box set. The box set edition was shipped along with a reissued '' Alive 1997'' vinyl with stickers, dual vinyls in white in a threefold sleeve, and a separate white LP containing the encore. Also included is a large hardback 52-page photo book, an ''Alive 2007'' concert pass replica, a Daft Punk printed slipmat, and a download code for the digital versions of the songs.

Tour

In early 2006, Daft Punk announced a number of shows. On 29 April, they performed at the

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colora ...

in California, their first US performance since 1997.

Thomas Bangalter Thomas Bangalter (; born 3 January 1975) is a French musician. He is best known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, alongside Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. He has recorded and released music as a member of the trio Music S ...

initially suggested there would be a DVD release of the show, but later said he felt amateur footage shared online was more compelling.Las Vegas Weekly: Chatting with a robot
Las Vegas Weekly. Retrieved 26 October 2007. Daft Punk later announced shows at

Bercy Bercy () is a neighbourhood in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France, the city's 47th administrative neighbourhood. History Some of the oldest vestiges of human occupation in Paris were found on the territory of Bercy, dating from the late N ...

, Paris,Daft Punk's Official MySpace Page
myspace.com. Retrieved 31 August 2007.

Wireless Festival ''Wireless'' Festival is an annual rap and hip-hop music festival that takes place in London, England, which is owned and managed by Live Nation Entertainment, Live Nation. Debuting in 2005, the festival's earlier years primarily featured rock an ...

and RockNess in June 2007, the

Oxegen Oxegen was a List of music festivals#Ireland, music festival in Ireland, first held from 2004–2011 as a rock and pop festival and again in 2013 with dance and chart acts only. The event was regularly cited as Ireland's biggest music festiva ...

festival in July and

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

in August. Daft Punk announced a world tour, Alive 2007. They played at the RockNess Festival by the banks of

Loch Ness Loch Ness (; ) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for claimed sightings of the cryptozoology, cryptozoological Loch Ness Mons ...

, Scotland, on 10 June 2007 as the headline act in the 10,000-capacity Clash tent. Part of the tent was removed to allow thousands of people outside to see the show.Clash Magazine Rock Ness Review
. clashmagazine.com. Retrieved 17 June 2007. On 16 June, Daft Punk headlined the third day of the O2 Wireless Festival.Wireless Festival review
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''. Retrieved 6 July 2007 Daft Punk headlined Stage 2/NME Stage at the Oxegen music festival on 8 July 2007. Their live set was preceded by a showing of the trailer for the film '' Daft Punk's Electroma''.Daft Punk close Oxegen with robotic spectacular
''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

''. Retrieved 12 July 2007.Daft Punk Closes Out Oxegen Festival
shoutmouth.com. Retrieved 12 July 2007. Four days later, the duo played at Traffic Torino Free Festival in Parco della Pellerina in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy. Daft Punk headlined the

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

stage on 3 August 2007, the first night of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Their show there was praised by ''Pitchfork'', which wrote that it "was a much-needed reminder of the still-potent power of communicative pop." On 5 August, Daft Punk performed at the International Centre in Toronto followed by a 9 August performance at KeySpan Park in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York.Daft Punk Announce Live Album
side-line.com. Retrieved 31 August 2007. They headlined the Vegoose festival in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

on 27 October, along with

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

and

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated as QOTSA or QotSA) is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1996. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme shortly before he returned to his native Palm Desert, California. ...

. At the end of October, Daft Punk performed in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. They also performed on Friday 2 November 2007 at the Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico and Guadalajara.

Modular Records Modular Recordings (known simply as Modular) was an Australian record label founded in 1998 by Steve Pavlovic that by 2015 was owned by Universal Music Australia. It has released music from local artists such as Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee, The Ava ...

announced that Daft Punk would appear in Australia for an event in December 2007 called Never Ever Land. Daft Punk were supported by their regular acts SebastiAn and Kavinsky at the appearances, which had been announced as an extension to the ''Alive 2007'' tour. Never Ever Land toured to Melbourne at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Perth at the Esplanade, Brisbane at the Riverstage and finally Sydney at the Sydney Showground Main Arena. A

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

interview with Pedro Winter (Busy P) revealed that Daft Punk's Sydney appearance on 22 December would be their final show for 2007 and the last to feature the pyramid light scheme. Tickets for the Australian tour sold more quickly than for any Daft Punk-related event in their history. For the 2007 shows, Daft Punk added the tracks " Burnin'" and "Phoenix" and an encore. Bangalter explained that the 2006 sets were initially designed for performances within larger festivals, but later refined to accommodate Daft Punk shows, saying "The goal was to try and bring a complete global experience to the audience."Buy It Use It Break It Fix It
''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

''. Retrieved on 6 November 2007. The introduction for the live show featured the five-note sequence used in ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film, science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François ...

''."Daft Punk thrill massive LA crowd"
. ''

''. Retrieved on 14 November 2007.

Technical elements

For the performances, Daft Punk used

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for compos ...

software on "custom-made supercomputers" controlled remotely with

Behringer Behringer is an audio equipment company founded by the Swiss engineer Uli Behringer on 25 January 1989 in Willich, Germany. Behringer produces equipment including synthesizers, mixers, audio interfaces and amplifiers. Behringer is owned b ...

BCR2000

MIDI controller A MIDI controller is any hardware or software that generates and transmits Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data to MIDI-enabled devices, typically to trigger sounds and control parameters of an electronic music performance. They mos ...

s and JazzMutant Lemur touchscreen pads. They also used

Minimoog Voyager The Minimoog Voyager or Voyager is a monophonic analog synthesizer, designed by Robert Moog and released in 2002 by Moog Music. The Voyager was modeled after the classic Minimoog synthesizer that was popular in the 1970s, and is meant to be a su ...

RME units, which, with the mixers, allowed them to "mix, shuffle, trigger loops, filter, distort samples, EQ in and out, transpose or destroy and deconstruct synth lines". The majority of the equipment was stored within offstage towers during the performances. The tour visuals were set up by XL Video.XL Video's profile on Apple
Apple. Retrieved on 9 November 2007. The company provided eight-core

Mac Pro Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals made by Apple Inc. since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of four desktop computers in the current ...

units running Catalyst v4 and

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...

. Daft Punk approached the company with their visual concept for the shows. "They came to us with a pretty fixed idea of what they wanted", said head of XL Video, Richard Burford. "They wanted to mix live video with effects. Using the eight-core Mac Pros, we were able to take in eight digital sources and treat them as video streams. Then they could use Catalyst to coordinate the video with lighting effects and add their own effects in on the fly. The final digital video streams ran to

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

screens."

Reception

The Alive 2007 tour was acclaimed. ''

'' described the set as a "memorable sensory spectacle, both dazzling and deafening" and ''ThisisLondon'' declared it "an almost faultless set of relentless electro euphoria". ''

'' wrote that the performance was "a robotic spectacular", while Shoutmouth described the set as "typically triumphant". The tour is credited for bringing dance music to a wider audience, especially in North America. The ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

'' journalist Gabriel Szatan likened it to the

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' 1964 performance on ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CB ...

'', which brought

British rock and roll British rock and roll, or typeset as British rock 'n' roll, is a style of popular music based on American rock and roll, which emerged in the late 1950s and was popular until the arrival of beat music in 1962. It was important in establishing Bri ...

to the American mainstream.

Dates

Critical reception

On the review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, ''Alive 2007'' has a score of 78 out of 100, indicating "generally favourable reviews". ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' regarded it as "the Ultimate Daft Punk Mixtape", finding that songs from '' Human After All'' had been "constantly improved and born anew" for the live set. The sentiment was also shared by

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, stating that "It has the feel of a greatest-hits-live concert, but energized by Daft Punk's talents at weaving songs in and out of each other." AllMusic considered it weaker than '' Alive 1997''. A review by '' The Star'' noted that the release and Daft Punk's concurrent tours restored the duo's reputation following the mixed reception for ''Human After All''. Rayner, Ben (4 December 2007)
"Daft Punk redemption"
'' The Star''. Retrieved on 3 September 2008. Critics also reconsidered songs from ''Human After All'' after they were integrated into the tour."Daft Punk and the Rise of the New Parisian Nightlife"
''Paper Magazine''. Retrieved on 3 November 2007. Dave de Sylvia of Sputnikmusic gave ''Alive 2007'' a score of four stars out of five and said, "Despite a few individual disappointments, ''Alive 2007'' is as exciting a collection of music as any released this year." ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' felt that the live crowd enhanced the positive mood of the performance. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' stated that ''Alive 2007'' "loses some of the essential experience" of attending the live Daft Punk events. ''

The Boston Phoenix ''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the now defunct ''Boston Phoenix'', '' ...

'' also felt that the album package would have benefited from more video content, expressing that a key factor of the live show was its implementation of visual elements. In his first positive review for a Daft Punk album,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

wrote that a full video representation was avoided because "too much scale, flesh and bodily effluvia would be lost".

expressed his reasons of not releasing a DVD by stating "the thousands of clips on the internet are better to us than any DVD that could have been released." At the

51st Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the ...

, ''Alive 2007'' won the

for Best Electronic/Dance Album, and the single "

" won for Best Dance Recording.

Track listing

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Notes

References

External links

Official ''Alive 2007'' website
* * {{Authority control Daft Punk live albums 2007 live albums Virgin Records live albums Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album Albums produced by Thomas Bangalter Albums produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo