(In case you missed it first time around, here's that track by track again. For a new version through a fresh pair of ears and our EXCLUSIVE internet interview click at the bottom of this story)
It's been the most talked about and best kept secret of 2001.
When the 'One More Time' single arrived at the end of last year it broke four years of silence from Daft Punk and heralded the long anticipated arrival of the follow up to their 1997 debut, Homework.
As the music press dissected 'One More Time' we all began licking our lips in anticipation of the album. Then. Nothing.
No news, release dates, white labels, promos, MP3s. Not even a confirmed title, although rumours about it being called Very Disco, Disco Very and Disco-Very weren't far from the mark.
Until recently there were only three copies of Discovery in the UK. Only one of these, kept permanently in Virgin's London HQ, was being played to selected journalists. One of Daft Punk's PR people summed up the situation in a sentence.
"If anyone tells you they've heard the Daft Punk album, they're lying."
This is pretty much the way it's going to stay until the week before release.
So, given that we really have heard the album, we thought we'd give you a sneak track by track of Daft Punk's new material.
Read it, digest it, memorise the track titles and how they sound and then go brag to your mates about hearing the Daft Punk album.
We don't recommend it, but if you're going to lie you might as well get your facts right.
Track One: 'One More Time' (5.20)
This one we all know by now. It divided dance floors on its release and still sounds dangerously popalicious. It's more than likely that Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homern Christo fully anticipated the controversy the single would cause and giggled at every headline it inspired.
It might be a saccharin version of Stardust featuring Romanthony on vocals, but it starts to make sense when slotted into an album setting, as it eases ears into the trouble the Daft Punk boys have a habit of visiting on their listeners.
Track Two. 'Aerodynamic' (3.27)
Songs on Discovery run seamlessly into each other, like some jolting, juxtapositioned mix album, so the four church bell chimes that mark the beginning of 'Aerodynamic' rise abruptly out of 'One More Time'. A cut up, funky, fuzz box guitar leads a thumping, break-house beat, hailing back to the raw, rock guitar and chemical beats that launched Daft Punk's 'Da Funk' into the limelight in 1995.
The guitars are not a new element in Daft Punk's musical make up. What is new is the comical Baroque keyboard break that muscles it's way into the track after two minutes, only to be barged out again by electro drum patterns that eventually subside to the forlorn bell chimes.
Daft Punk put the boot in the old school and come with 'Da Classical'.
Track Three. 'Digital Love' (4.58)
Here we see another departure for the Punks as Bangalter takes over the microphone and sings, heavily vocoded, over what is essentially a folk guitar ballad, under which a lightweight Cassio synth drum pattern clicks merrily away.
It's hard to dismiss the image of Daft Punk stuffed into ill fitting dinner jackets performing in a hotel foyer bar. An image that only makes the track more incongruous given this is their collaboration with DJ Sneak.
Then, just to further unsettle, the pounding trade mark kick drum stomps into the track's soft underbelly. The three of them then add a fumbled key board line, heat to boiling point and lace liberally with a screaming synth guitar solo.
Track Four. 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' (3.43)
The title might suggest Public Domain have somehow exerted some influence over Daft Punk, but the reality is a deep slab of Eighties P funk influenced disco, which nicely complements the electro edges of the vocoda vocals.
Naturally the funky loops aren't left to work on their own for long, as the bass bin destroying kick drum roles into the Rick James groove. Not that the four four beats are applied lazily and by the end the track sounds closer to a West London broken beat track than Parisian Disco.
Track Five: 'Crescendolls. (3.28)
Beginning as pure 303 driven electro, this is soon joined by what sounds like a trade mark reverse sample which, while leaving all the electro elements in the mix, soon transforms the track into a house-party tune.
Apart from 'Aerodynamic' this is probably where Homework devotees will head to get their long overdue fix especially when the track crunches into mashed-up scratches.
Track Six: 'Nightvision' (1.43)
A one and a half minute incidental insert, Nightvision acts as an almost mid break point, dividing the album into two halves of unequal sizes. Why? Is anyone's guess.
Track Seven: 'Superheroes' (3.57)
The crisp military role of 'Superheroes' snaps the mood out of the warm sludge of 'Nightvision' to slap the party face back on your mug. More traditional DP fare, the beats once again pound the floor, while that Baroque keyboards returns in a kind of Madness of King George meets Saturday night lunacy 2001.
Track Eight: 'High Life' (3.19)
Having set the tone with 'Superheroes', the aptly entitled 'High Life' confirms the mood. Production wise it demonstrates Daft Punk have to some extent picked-up where they left-off, but the interim Stardust project has left its mark, so the sound are cleaner and sharper than the slap-it-down energy of Homework.
Track Nine: 'Something About Us' (3.50)
'Something About Us' returns to the P-funk, dripping with gloriously liquid wah bass sounds that get all close and sensual, before the vocoda butts in like an irritating little brother who wants to talk big things, like LURVE.
Track Ten: 'Voyager' (3.46)
Having dipped the pace for a bit of funkiness we ride the disco house storm again with 'Voyager', as a deep filled descending chord and bass line powers a rippling harp.
Track Eleven: 'Veridis Quo' (5.44)
'Veridis Quo' delves further into Mozart territory, church organs add a monastic quality to the sounds. Delayed 303s and other worldly deep house drum patterns rise slowly to meet the habit wearing sandal clan Franciscan brothers in one of the albums more pastoral moments.
This will feel rather nice under the San Antonio sun and is one of the more surprising tracks on the album. Expect it to become familiar despite it not being released as a single.
Track Twelve: 'Short Circuit' (3.24)
Have veered into an ambient direction the album makes one of its many return trips to raw edge funk, this time sounding like a fucked up Zap band, equipped with pitch-bent keyboard swoops.
Track Thirteen: 'Face to Face' (3.58)
"Face to Face" is a stomp track that skips between a dazzling array of samples. Vocoda vocals return, but on this occasion it's more minimal, adding thickness to garage don Todd Edwards' vocals without distorting them.
Track Fourteen: 'Too Long' (10.00)
Finally Romanthony has his second voyage onto the album with the kamikaze 'Too Long', a ten minute track that begs to fall on its sword.
As is becoming a trade mark, Romanthony's vocal out-takes (grunts and the like) are used to build the track, as the mood gradually intensifies, building, then dropping back, working towards its anticipated take-off. This finally comes a full five minutes into the track, only to break down and begin to build again. It's the kind of record that's destined to take up permanent residence in your record bag.
Bangalter was right to warn us not to expect an album that sounded like 'One More Time'. Instead of throw away filtered pop this has the feel of another cwazy DP classic and, what's more, it's classical.
Too long? It certainly has been. Bring on the clowns.
