This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Don’t think Discovery. Think Disco. Very.
This long-awaited followup to Parisian progressive dance outfit Daft Punk’s smash debut Homework lives up to its sly title in a myriad of appropriately sly ways. This publicly faceless duo — Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo seldom appear without masks or makeup — obviously did their homework on the origins of ’70s dance-floor culture. Unlike the neo-electronica of previous tunes like Da Funk, cuts like One More Time, Digital Love and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger seldom stray from a more traditional trail of four-on-the-floor platform-stomping beats, synthesized Mr. Roboto vocals, squirty Moog solos and sweeping, I-will-survive-and-dance-the-night-away melodies. A few songs even start with loops from old disco tracks to set the tone before the punks kick things up a notch with their knob-twiddling production and free-wheeling song structures. Like a lot of parties, it doesn’t know when to quit — later instrumentals like the spacey Voyageur and the Herbie Hancockish Short Circuit feel like filler, and the 10-minute Too Long is more than aptly named. Our advice: Be on time and leave early.
