Daft Punk eased to their third week atop the UK official singles charts, but the success of ‘Get Lucky’ is strange even for them and knocked this writer off his little feet.
The album was bound to be a smash, that much was certain with the rabid fanbase that the duo have collected over the years, but until now the pair have only had three top ten hits and even that was at the very peak of their powers in the early 2000s.
That's all changed though with this latest track, with Daft Punk not only getting their first number one outside of France, but keeping it without breaking a sweat. But how has this song become one of the biggest singles of the year so far and by far the biggest selling track to have been made by the French dance legends.
The first point is that as the world gets ready for summertime, this track is the perfect way to get into the summer mood. Its energy is inescapable and is something that you just can’t help but embrace and get drawn to, with the overall sound of the record being so warm and welcoming that it almost feels like a holiday through your headphones
Let’s also not forget that this is an incredibly catchy song, as well as being by quite some distance the most radio friendly song that Daft Punk have ever released. The vocals of Pharrell Williams go a long way to this, making the song so much more accessible to new listeners than the robotoic voices of the past might have been. Nile Rodgers also must get some credit, as that guitar melody that underpins most of the track being catcher than the common cold and impossible to shake from your head for hours after listening to the track.
Catchy songs have always been in Daft Punk’s wheel house though, as even the mention of ‘Around The World’ will have people humming the distinctive bass beat at the heart of the track, but once again they’ve proved that it just comes naturally to them.
The song has also sold far better than any other Daft Punk song as it’s received far more exposure than any before it. A combination of the playability of it and the length of time that the Parisian pair have been away for have meant that us media types have been frothing at the mouth to get word out there of their return.
Despite all of this though, the enormous success of the record has had some of scratching our heads. This is disco dominating the singles charts for goodness sakes!
The UK might love itself some musical nostalgia, but when was the last time that you heard disco in the charts? Daft Punk might have their roots in house and electro, but this record is pure disco, something that the album is also set to deliver in spades. That even this single is having such incredible success right off the bat shows that this gamble from the pair might just be another brilliant transition.
With Daft Punk on a whole new commercial high, it wouldn’t be silly to already think that the much anticipated ‘Random Access Memories’ will follow suit and give them their first number one album in the UK too.
Tagged in Daft Punk