The Top Ten Best Daft Punk Songs

Daft Punk holds a special place in my heart when it comes to me and music. My first real passion for music as more than just catchy noise as a child was when I first listened to “Around the World” by Daft Punk. The music, rhythm, and melody just captured me and it not only introduced me to Daft Punk and electronic music in general, but they were my first artist or group I could call myself a fan. Now with Daft Punk getting ready to release their new album Random Access Memories in May, I think it would be appropriate to countdown my top ten favorite songs from their extensive catalog. Daft Punk seems to be a constantly changing beast as they continuing mixing different sounds and genres together to give a memorable auditory experience and I am your tour guide. So if you are a newbie to Daft Punk, this list is a perfect starting point. Note that I will not include their soundtrack for Tron: Legacy or their live albums. Just concentrating on their actual albums. Let’s begin shall we?

Honorable Mention: Music Sounds Better With You by Stardust

This song is not technically a Daft Punk song, but rather from another short lived group named Stardust. The connection comes in the form of one half of Daft Punk Thomas Bangalter  joining with Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond to create this euphoric and endlessly catchy tune. It is a simple song with only a few verses and a looping sample of Chaka Khan’s “Fate” and it is a glorious example of Daft Punk’s talent (or half of in this case). It’s a six minute song that barely breaks any formation, but yet remain fresh and catchy all the way through. A shining example of house music.

10. Fresh

The first song on this list is another one of the shining examples of Daft Punk and instrumentals. Fresh succeeds in providing a chill atmosphere by introducing a strong yet mellow beat. The song is also accompanied by crashing waves that might have been distracting and out of place if used inappropriately, but it actually provides a lot of the atmosphere it is going for. A great relaxing tune.

9. Voyager

Voyager is similar to Fresh in that it is an instrumental song that serves to provide a relaxing vibe to it. While this one is certainly one that you can dance to, it also shows how vivid Daft Punk’s music is. This song just reminds me of a clear and cool night with a bunch of shining stars in the countryside. It is a perfect night driving song for me.

8. Human After All

Most people consider Human After All to be Daft Punk’s weakest album and I can agree with them. It doesn’t feature as many gems compared to Homework and especially Discovery, but I feel like it is still a solid album with some great songs sprinkled in and this one is one of them. While it certainly goes for a more robotic sound this time around, I think it works with the message of the song and what it goes for in terms of tone and sound. It’s catchy and the guitar riffs are amazing. An underrated track I might say

7. Revolution 909

Another massively underrated Daft Punk track. This song again triumphs in its depiction of a certain situation or place and this one projects a crazy party with your friends in the city. It’s funky and it has style by the tons.

6. Aerodynamic

The bells. The guitar riffs that could melt Slash’s face off. A wonderful instrumental that showcases a great mixture of sounds that never feels disjointed and keeps building and building to a crescendo of pure aural pleasure (see what I did there?).

5. Da Funk

The song that put them on the map. Da Funk has all the ingredients for a great Daft Punk. A massively catchy beat, a constant mixture of different sounds and rhythms, and just a song that you can easily dance to. A classic to be sure.

4. Digital Love

Love songs in electronic music usually consist of female vocals over some sort of soft melodies, but it is either too fast paced or aggressive to be considered as such. Digital Love, on the other hand, it is a perfect love song for this type of music. It contains all the great aspects of Daft Punk with a sweet guitar solo and beat, but it retains that sweetness needed to attain the soft love song. It is a song dripping with positivity and very catchy as well.

3. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

You might have heard this song get sampled by Kanye West in his song “Stronger”. For good reason also because it’s a great song. It has a very unique sound to it and its simple lyrics lend it that artificial feel, but yet it is full of personality and life. It also builds to a wonderful consistent driving pace that makes it hard not to dance to.

2. Around the World

The song that introduced me to Daft Punk in the first place. A song that completely masters the concept of successful repetition. Artists today drive repetition to the ground and it becomes boring and annoying. However, this song does it in a rather simplistic way that it becomes endearing and the different sounds going on make it a great song to listen to over and over as you notice and concentrate on every single sound within this song. The music video is also pretty awesome as well.

1. One More Time

When people say Daft Punk, this is the song that comes to mind. Their most popular hit to date, One More Time sums up a fantastic dance song. It’s simple, catchy, and a great song to dance to. However, I feel the driving force that makes this song so successful is its attitude. Unlike most party songs today that is all about money and women and just generally sounds like a spoiled brat bragging about himself for four minutes, Daft Punk just wants you to have fun and feel the music. That’s what they do and then some. A classic dance staple and the prime example as to why Daft Punk is an amazing group.

I’ll be waiting what other auditory fantasy trips they will drop on me next month.