Opinion
Daft Punk’s newest album manifests an aptitude for music
February 24, 2011
A name synonymous with electronic music, Daft Punk has yet again proven their superiority with their release of the Tron Soundtrack. With Tron being a Disney movie, normally I would be quite apprehensive towards jumping on board with it, let alone a Disney soundtrack. Yet after one glance at noticing Daft Punk got the score, no questions were left in my mind; I decided I must hear this soundtrack.
It seemed destined that this soundtrack was made for Daft Punk, as their sound, image, and personas all matched the film perfectly.
Being kings of the electronic music industry for years, the French duo has consistently set the industry standard for dance/electronic music, and offers live shows so exciting even if those fans entirely closed off towards dance music would find themselves in a musical wonderland. You simply don’t find light shows, energetically eager fans, or let alone music like this, anywhere. Period.
For those of you readers unaware of the French duo, you may find it rather odd to know that they dress up as full out robots when in public. This at first was simply to remain anonymous to the general public and maintain their mysterious personas, but it’s grown into their musical identity. It almost seems that they established a theme in the DJ culture to have a costume of some sort to help add to your status and persona amongst the community and music industry.
Deadmau5, Daft Punk, The Bloody Beetroots all exemplify this ideology, and have one hell of a dedicated fan base in some degree due to this. Besides, adding the aspect of mysteriousness to a show it can only help to mystify an audience.
Back in the 80’s, the original Tron had been released with a relatively mediocre response, being far ahead of its time and audience. But now being released again with a refreshed vigor amongst it, and a great soundtrack, success was the only viable option for this remake.
As mentioned before, Daft Punk ultimately could not have been a better option for this album. Electronic music artists that dress up as robots? And mix the best material in the industry, HELL YES! Disney has struck gold here! The albums mixes Daft Punk’s unique styles with a surprisingly awesome Disney flick.
The Tron soundtrack seems as if it could be borderline iffy, as any movie soundtrack runs that possibility. Yet, despite a relatively new chill relaxed sound on this album, track after track Daft Punk reassures listener’s that this isn’t just any soundtrack.
Highlights on the album include “Derezzed,” “The Son of Flynn,” “End of the Line,” and despite not being on the album, an amazingly special unreleased track simply known as “Fragile.” For any Daft Punk fans out there, make sure to check it out. Both “Derezzed” and “End of the Line” offer glimpses inside the “robot world” and flow perfectly within the album sounding rather mechanized. Whereas, both of the songs “The Son of Flynn” and “Fragile” bring resonating melodic harmonies equating to a heavenly bliss to the listener.
With such amazing teams of Disney and Daft Punk coming together for this musical score, it’s truly hard to imagine anything less than a masterpiece. Disney has reassured my faith in their films yet again, and Daft Punk has left me anxiously wanting to hear more of their albums.
Besides that, I’m pretty sure if you looked up the word “cool” in any dictionary, there would only be a picture of Daft Punk as the definition. These guys are the epitome of cool, and not to mention musical geniuses of our generation.
Regardless, they have proven themselves again, and it begs the question, “How are they capable of doing this time and time again?” For the time being, who cares? Enjoy the brilliance of Daft Punk while you can and keep on dancing!
Ryen Kleiser is a laid back biology student at UW-River Falls. He is hoping to become a well-known marine biologist and teacher.