Do Your Homework

Daft punk's debut, Homework, is an eclectic sampling of French dance music. Sharp cutting beats, rollicking base lines, and pure danceability are the definition of this album that's chock full of quite a few great tracks, though also some less than stellar ones as well. The classics are the two singles off the album: Da Funk and Around the World, but that doesn't complete the list of invigorating singles.

By my count, the best songs here have to include the above two along with Revolution 909, High Fidelity, Burnin', Indio Silver Club, and Alive. That makes for a pretty good track ordering, since you open up with great material, and end with it as well, though the middle of the disc (namely tracks 8, 9, 11, and 12) is where the disc's overextension gets into place. Anyways, enough blabbering, here's a track-by-track listing:

1. Daftendirekt: A great opening piece, namely because it's relatively short (which is vital for an opener), energy packed, and has a pretty sharp beat throughout. This track is an excellent example of Daft Punk's production abilities - the song changes continually throughout the tune, never seeming to repeat itself or become overdone. It begins with some muffled vocals, which gradually fade in, and then eventually kicks in it's beats, which are seemlessly interdispersed with one another throughout the song. After mixing and matching the beat for a little, the song smoothly melds into... ( 9 / 10 )

2. WDPK 83.7 FM: A short little number at only about thirty seconds, the track is essentially a bridge between the opener and the third song. We get some vocals - "Dancing Music" heard over and over - with a background beat, and then a radio announcer who reports to us they're bringing us "exclusively daft punk's homework". ( 7 / 10 )

3. Revolution 909: One of the best tracks on the album. A good quality beat here is enveloped by great dance potential at a club. This song could've fit in perfectly as a background song in Trainspotting - it's got that European dance club feel to it all the way. The baseline throughout this one's often muffled, giving the listener a feeling of being dislocated from the music, only to be thrown back into the mix a second later. Clocks in at over five minutes long, but you wouldn't notice it. ( 9 / 10 )

4. Da Funk: One of the two "classic" songs off this album, this one was released with a great Spike Jones video with a dog dancing that turned some heads. This tune exhibits Daft's ability to tie in a great bass beat with the usual techno beat. Add to that a synthesizer rollicking up and down the scale, and you've got a great number. At times in this song there's so much going on it's almost seems impossible to fully grasp it - particularly around the 3:30 mark, where all of the song is finally fully intermingled. ( 10 / 10 )

5. Phoenix: A pretty sweet song that takes a while to get where it's going, this tune has a stepping bassline in the background that travels with the more overt foreground beat - a grabber that defines the song. This song, along with the following Fresh, form a nice bridge between the two titan tracks Da Funk and Around the World. ( 8 / 10 )

6. Fresh: A bit of a softer song than those that surround it, Fresh is a mix of a sound of waves in the background with the tune itself. Definitely one of the more relaxed sounds on the album. There's even some guitar-sounding background in the mix. This track could be judged to be a bit repetitive, but I'd tend to disagree as the soft backgrounds that help compose this song really reduce any repetitiveness of it. ( 8 / 10 )

7. Around the World: This is Daft Punk at their finest, with an insatiable background beat that's impossible to deny. A repeated "around the world" sums up the vocals on this one. At just over seven minutes long you'd expect this one to hit and exceed the line of repativity, but that's not really the case because of how good the song inherently is. Probably speaking you've already heard this one, so let's move on... ( 10 / 10 )

8. Rollin' & Scratchin': This is the first sort of lackluster track on the album. As such it to me really stands as a markpost of the middle section of the disc. It's not actually a bad song, but it seems like it goes on forever. Really they should've knocked off about three minutes and everything'd be alright (as it stands, it's around the 7:30 mark). There is some cool scratching here (hence the title), which is a pretty inventive addition to a song, and when that's rammed into the mix it's a pretty damn good listen, but overall I'd have to say that this tune's probably best suited for a dance floor (where it'd actually do well), rather than in your CD player. ( 5 / 10 )

9. Teachers: Damn does this song suck. Now I love Daft Punk and all, but this has got to be one of the most pointless tunes I've ever heard on an album (OK, so Tool's got a lot to say about that, but that's it). What we've got here is a pretty good beat that could've been used to make a pretty good tune, but was instead interspirsed with a seemingly endless list of homages ("Dr. Dre is in the house", etc.). What a waste. ( 2 / 10 )

10. High Fidelity: If this track sucked then we'd be stuck with five straight substandard tracks (8-12), but as it turns out this is one of the best tracks on the album due to it's unstopable beat. There's some indecipherable vocals here that I have yet to understand, but that sound great nonetheless. When this song first kicks into its full groove at about the two minute mark, hold on to your pants (sorry, I had to use that one). Just one hell of a killer tune. ( 10 / 10 )

11. Rock & Roll: This song reminds me a lot of Rollin' & Scratchin' (track 8) in that it over stays its welcome. Once again we have a pretty good groove going, but it never seems to end. The longest song on the album (though only by about five seconds), this tune also seems to drag on the longest. Pretty much the song consists of a scratchy sound that flairs about wildly in tone, which is intermingles with the usual background beat. Not the greatest - I almost always skip this one. ( 3 / 10 )

12. Oh Yeah: One of the shortest tunes on the album, and rightfully so, Oh Yeah is minimalism at its finest (or worst). Personally I can't deal with the overtly typical beat presented here. ( 2 / 10 )

13. Burnin': This is the first of three great tracks that close the album (actually there's four left, but the last one's so short that it doesn't really count). At first it sounds like your in for another Rollin' & Scratchin' or Rock & Roll (endless repeats of a decent beat), but then the bass line erupts and it's on. The contrast here between the bass line and the ripping electronic audio are fantastic. You'd think no audio plus a seven minute length would kill a song's chances of success, but this is one of the finest on the album. ( 9 / 10 )

14. Indio Silver Club: Damn is this a good song. Easily the most intense bass line on the album. Make sure you've got a good system for this one. The song fades in and out in intensity throughout the song, make it a go. Also coupled into the mix is a great, rolling synthesizer sound zooming it's way around the tune. The two sounds work together immaculately. ( 10 / 10 )

15. Alive: One of the more individualistic sounding tunes on this disc, and also one of the best. This song has always implied movement to me - it's, in my opinion, the best song on the album for driving. This is also the last "real" song on the disc, as the next song's only a little blip in length. It's great to hear an album close like this. ( 9 / 10 )

16. Funk Ad: A fifty second long jam that's apparently a reversed Da Funk. Quirky but still interesting, it marks the end of a great album.. ( 6 / 10 )

So that's the album. Overall a great album, definitely worth the price. The only thing to watch out for: this is a significantly different album than their second album, Discovery, so be prepared for a change if you've got that already.