TLDR: Daft Punk is Thomas Bangalter (Silver Guy) and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Gold Guy), and they released 4 studio albums of mainly house and nu-disco music.

Daft Punk is a two-man French House duo. They first met in high school in France and created a rock band named Darlin’, which had a mixed reception. One reviewer called one of their songs a, “daft punky thrash.” Guy-Manuel and Thomas took this criticism and clowned on it so hard they became internationally iconic. After the fall of Darlin’, they’d channel their love of Detroit techno, acid house, and Chicago house, into Daft Punk’s first two singles: “The New Wave” and “Da Funk”. “Da Funk” was a massive success and was the baseline for the Daft Punk sound moving forward, combining house, funk, and dance music sounds into something incredibly effective. Soon after this single, they’d show the world all the work they’d done from home, and in 1997 they’d release Homework. 

Homework

Opinion Time: Homework is just good. It has a lot of iconic and memorable tracks like “Around the World”, “Phoenix,” “Fresh,” “Da Funk,” in addition to abrasive and hard tracks like “Rollin and Scratchin” and “Rock and Roll.” However, this is not the best intro to Daft Punk. This has some acid house that’s very repetitive and abrasive, and if you aren’t into that it will sour you to Daft Punk. If you are looking for something more melodic and danceable I’d go for “Around the World,” “Fresh,” “Da Funk,” and “Phoenix.” If you want to seek out the abrasive and the hard, give “Daftendirekt,” “Rock n Roll,” and “Rollin and Scratchin” a listen.
Best Song: “Around the World”
Worst Song: “Teachers”

Post-Homework Era

This album was received very well and furthered house music worldwide. After the success of Homework they began working on their next project, and the one that would define their careers. They’d take after a more disco, RnB, and garage house sound. However, the increasing popularity of the duo began to unnerve them, and they didn’t like the idea of celebrities’ faces or stardom. So, they began to wear masks in public to cover their faces. Then, a conveniently timed tragedy occured. The duo reports that while working on their next project a sampler exploded in their studio damaging their faces and forcing them to don robot heads to continue with their lives. This created the iconic image of Daft Punk, and granted their music a new depth and theme. Thomas Bangalter received a silver head with a visor and mouth hole, and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo received a gold head with a large display, both featuring lights. This would be the only way they would appear in public and in music videos for the rest of their careers. Eventually, they’d finish this project looking towards their 1975-1985 childhoods for inspiration and reminiscing on the feelings of discovery with every day. In March of 2001, Discovery would release worldwide, with single “One More Time,” released the year before.

Discovery

Opinion Time: those that know me personally know my thoughts on this album. Discovery is my favorite album of all time. Not one song on this album is anywhere near bad, every song is incredible. Every song is simple to grasp but has something new to discover (aha) on each listen. Unlike Homework which was cool and abrasive, Discovery is sparkly and groovy as all hell. Bangalter notes, “Homework was a way to say to the rock kids, like, ‘Electronic music is cool’. Discovery was the opposite.” This album cements their iconic vocoded sound in songs like “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” “Digital Love,” and “Something About Us.” It uses robotic-sounding autotune in lead track “One More Time” 6 years before T-Pain bought us a drank. It also makes heavy use of unique samples. Despite being released in 2001, the original samples from this album are still being actively discovered (aha) in 2022. The sequencing and pacing is perfect with slow ambient songs like “Veridis Quo” and “Nightvision” placed at just the perfect times to let you recharge after the stream of bangers placed before them. I can’t sing the praises of this album enough. Every song is amazing, fun, and rich with detail. This album alone changed my music taste irreparably and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve listened to this album hundreds of times and I would happily listen One More Time (aha). I would listen to “Aerodynamic” and/or “Crescendolls” to see if you’re into the Daft Punk vibe and then listen to the whole album in order.
Best Song: (all of them) “Voyager”/”Too Long”/”Superheroes”

Worst Song: “Short Circuit” (still a banger)

Post-Discovery Era

Anyways, Discovery was a massive success worldwide, topping charts in France and other charts worldwide. It was a pioneer in the French House genre and inspired countless other acts, “One More Time” would be their most popular song for most of their career. Kanye West sampling “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” in his song “Stronger” and the robots being featured in the music video gave them a big boost in the United States and just further boosted their image. The expectations for whatever would come next were massive. So…Daft Punk made an entire album in six weeks with only two guitars, two drum machines, a vocoder, and an eight-track. They intentionally made it rougher and rawer, and more improvisational to contrast the sheen of Discovery. Further contrasting Discovery, rather than advertising it with singles and press they just dropped it in March of 2005, doing little to no press on it before or after its release. Human After All explores themes of technology’s negative effect on humanity, surveillance, and the consequences of robots. 

Human After All

Opinion Time: Human After All is their most divisive and disliked album. Many people bash it for its boring repetition, annoying abrasion, and dimmer theme as opposed to Discovery. In my opinion, this album is over-hated. There are insane bangers like title track “Human After All,” “Robot Rock,” “Prime Time of Your Life,” and “Technologic.” However, tracks like “Steam Machine” and “The Brainwasher” while having good memorable ideas, weren’t anything great and can get annoying quickly. The theme of the album, while grimmer and less fun, is still well explored. Specifically, ending with the track “Emotion” was very effective. The rough sound and mix of the album at first listen may be unlikeable, but I’ve grown to appreciate it especially given what the duo was going for. Is this album as good as Discovery? Absolutely not, but I still think it’s pretty good. Listen to “Television Rules the Nation” to see if you’re into it, and if you like it listen to the album in order. I don’t blame you if you skip “The Brainwasher,” “Steam Machine,” and “On/Off” halfway through. Also don’t watch the “Technologic” music video, thank me later.

Best Song: “Robot Rock”

Worst Song: “On/Off”

Post-Human After All Era

Human After All received mixed reviews to say the least. Many fans were insanely disappointed by the album and unleashed a lot of hate. Despite the mixed reception, “Human After All” and “Robot Rock” would chart well and the album would still be nominated for a Grammy. Just like Kanye and his song “Stronger,” “Technologic” was sampled in Busta Rhymes’ hit song “Touch It” boosting their popularity. After some very successful live performances and making the soundtrack for Tron Legacy, rumors began spreading that the robotic duo were working on a 4th album. They were getting real studio musicians to make what they would have previously sampled, recruiting music superstars from around the world, and just like Discovery, calling back to their 70’s and 80’s experience growing up. With legends like Pharell Williams, drummer Omar Hakim, guitarist Nile Rodgers, dance music legend Giorgio Moroder, Panda Bear, Julian Casablancas, and more included, Random Access Memories or RAM released in May of 2013, with hit single “Get Lucky” featuring Pharell Williams being released the month before.

Random Access Memories (RAM)

Opinion Time: RAM is stellar. Unlike the other albums, this one is decidedly not a house album. This is a varied album spanning from epic soundtrack-esque music, disco, pop, musical theater, funk, and much more. Hit single “Get Lucky” is such a classic track; instantly catchy and memorable. Other songs like “Lose Yourself to Dance,” “Doin it Right,” “Give Life Back to Music,” and “Fragments of Time” are danceable highlights. “Instant Crush” is an unexpected song featuring The Strokes singer Julian Casablancas coated in vocoding, still a banger though. My only gripe with the album is the pacing, I feel sometimes while listening to it I’m waiting for it to get catchy and fun again and cut the ambience a bit quicker. “Beyond” and “Motherboard,” while both effective tracks, do mark a decline in the album’s energy. The mixing is also particularly excellent. Listen to this album with a good pair of headphones, or through good speakers and these tracks kiss the ears. I would say listen to “Get Lucky” first but I’m 100% sure you’ve heard it plenty already. So instead, I suggest you listen to “Lose Yourself to Dance” first and if you like it then listen to the album in order.

Best Song: “Lose Yourself to Dance”

Worst Song: “Touch”

Epilogue

Unbeknownst to us, Random Access Memories would be Daft Punk’s final project as a duo. They did some more live performances including a stellar Grammy’s performance with Stevie Wonder and Pharell of a medley of several songs with “Get Lucky.” But in February of 2021, they somewhat abruptly announced their breakup. Thomas and Guy-Manuel said it was amicable and agreed upon, and they are still on good terms. Daft Punk is one of, if not my favorite musical groups of all time, and despite only having 4 studio albums, has made an undeniable impact on the musical landscape around the world.

My Ranking

1. Discovery 
2. Random Access Memories
3. Human After All
4. Homework

My Ranking Including Live Albums

1. Discovery
2. Alive 2007 
3. Random Access Memories
4. Alive 1997
5. Human After All
6. Homework