Nod your heads, wave your arms, twist your hips. ‘Get Lucky’, the funk filled latest offering of electronic maestros Daft Punk, is crawling across Oxford, from the floors of Bridge and the discos of Braesnose Ball to the computer room of Worcester College, where I write on behalf of those of you who thought that Cherwell’s previous attack on irresistible electro was just plain wrong.
Did we expect less from our robotic rulers? Reminiscent of their more recent Around the World than the seminal Discovery, I and millions of others took to the track instantly. A choppy guitar track from Nile Rodgers, taking the best parts of 80’s funk and current production values together, belays the real quality of the opening bars, the endlessly fascinating and intricately weaved bass line. Pharrell Williams’ tones are laid back on the verses. Not, I grant, as powerful as on previous work, but living the lyrics they give to us, lyrics that really, really aren’t misogynist. Please, just stop.
How anyone can keep the rising notes that lead into that chorus and the repeated insistence of the title line out of their brains is beyond me. This stuff has been floating in my thoughts for a week already. By the 2:30 mark the electronic voice changers are out, the bass is rolling on, and I’m bouncing around these lonely computers like a kangaroo on speed. We even get a synth riff.
If this does sound like a throwback to the 90s, I miss the 90s. And if this is Daft Punk rehashing their early work, I was born 20 years too late. The mechanised Frenchmen have forged a mighty alliance with Rodgers and Williams, and have stormed a dance dominated chart with some real quality in the field.
My feet are itching for more and Random Access Memories cannot possibly come soon enough.
