Daft Punk - Discovery [Gatefold] (2LP) Vinyl

Discovery is the second studio album by the French electronic duo Daft Punk, released on 12 March 2001 by Virgin Records. It followed Homework (1997) and moved away from that record's Chicago house style towards a sound drawn from disco, post-disco, garage house and R&B. Thomas Bangalter described the album as an exploration of song structures, musical forms and childhood nostalgia rather than the raw electronic music of the debut.

The Album

Discovery was recorded between 1998 and 2000 at Daft House, Bangalter's home studio in Paris. Rather than the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines typical of house music, Daft Punk worked with an Oberheim DMX, a LinnDrum and a Sequential Circuits Drumtraks, alongside Akai MPC and E-mu SP-1200 samplers, Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, and vocoders including a Roland SVC-350. Auto-Tune was applied to the vocals in a way it was never designed to work. Romanthony sings on "One More Time" and "Too Long", Todd Edwards on "Face to Face", and DJ Sneak wrote the lyrics to "Digital Love". Nilesh Patel mastered the record.

It is a concept album, rooted in the duo's memories of growing up in the decade between 1975 and 1985 and in their love of cinema and character. Daft Punk adopted their robot costumes shortly before release, and went on to work with Leiji Matsumoto on Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, an anime feature that uses Discovery as its soundtrack.

Reception

Discovery reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and the French Albums Chart, and number 23 on the US Billboard 200. It is certified 2x Platinum in the United Kingdom by the BPI and 3x Platinum in France. Six singles were taken from it, of which "One More Time" was the most successful. Rolling Stone placed the album at number 236 in its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Pitchfork later named it the third best album of the 2000s, and Apple Music ranked it 23rd in its 100 Best Albums list in 2024.

This Pressing

This is the Daft Life Ltd. and ADA reissue, catalogue number 0190296617164, first issued in December 2021 and repressed since. It runs to two black vinyl LPs in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves, the lacquers cut at Translab. The release is distributed exclusively by Warner Music France and ADA France.

Tracklist

Side A

1. One More Time (featuring Romanthony) (5:20)
2. Aerodynamic (3:27)
3. Digital Love (4:58)

Side B

1. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (3:45)
2. Crescendolls (3:31)
3. Nightvision (1:44)
4. Superheroes (3:57)

Side C

1. High Life (3:22)
2. Something About Us (3:51)
3. Voyager (3:47)
4. Veridis Quo (5:44)

Side D

1. Short Circuit (3:26)
2. Face to Face (featuring Todd Edwards) (3:58)
3. Too Long (featuring Romanthony) (10:00)