New Music from 4/26/2011 - Bootsy Collins, Dirty Vegas, and Rubik

Bootsy Collins The Funk Capital of the World - The former bassist for James Brown in the 60's, member of the George Clinton led Parliament-Funkadelic in the 70's, and current Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member; Bootsy Collins releases a new album of funk-heavy jams.  His first album release in over four years, this disc comes chock full of guest artists lending their talents to the record.  Some of those guests are less surprising given Bootsy's prominence and long history in the industry with names like George Clinton, Snoop Dog, Bobby Womack and Ice Cube being some of the better respected and more well-known musicians helping out.  There's also the more eccentric performers like banjo master Bela Fleck (sans The Flecktones), actor Samuel L. Jackson, and political activist Reverend Al Sharpton all playing prominent parts on individual tracks.

After a short intro track the album's first real song is "Hip Hop @ Funk U" with guest performers Ice Cube, Snoop Dog and Chuck D.  It's a fast moving, high energy song that mixes a funk groove with hip-hop style raps by Cube and Snoop.  "JB - Still the Man" features Rev. Al Sharpton giving a spoken word monologue about the impact of James Brown over a 60's/70's style rhythm with James Brown style horn work prominently featured that works surprisingly well.  "After These Messages" has Samuel L. Jackson providing spoken word dialogue over music that's a synthesizer-heavy homage to Parliament's classic "Give Up The Funk" (the song even incorporates the most famous lyrics from that song, "we're gonna turn this mother out").  "Don't Take My Funk" featuring Bootsy's late brother Catfish Collins and Hall of Fame Rocker Bobby Womack has a slower hip-hop infused sound that will recall memories of Soul songs from past decades thanks to the guiding influence of Catfish's smooth rhythm guitar work.

The Funk Capital of the World is a very entertaining funk album that shows Bootsy Collins hasn't lost his touch nor has any of his funk-playing musician friends over the years.  Fans of classic funk will especially enjoy the tracks featuring past Parliament members like George Clinton and Catfish Collins which still exhibit the sweet sound found on classic albums of theirs from past decades.  Newer fans are more likely to be drawn in for the tracks featuring newer artists like Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson and those tracks end up being very satisfying, if slightly inconsistent, as well.  However, both new fans and old fans will find something on the disc that will get their funky side grooving.

Score: 8/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "JB - Still the Man" ft. Al Sharpton and "Don't Take My Funk" ft. Catfish Collins and Bobby Womack [sample it below]

Dirty Vegas Electric Love - The Grammy Award winning electronica act from South London returns with a 10-track release.  Dirty Vegas is best known for their 2002 hit "Days Go By" which won the Best Dance Recording Grammy and was featured in a long running Mitsubishi commercial .  What I didn't realize was the band broke up in 2005 and only recently reformed a few years ago.  This is their first full-length studio release since 2004 although they did release a remix album in 2009.  Now let's find out if getting the band back together was a good idea or a waste of time.

Like their music from before the band broke up, the songs are primarily in the style of house music (with some trance beats thrown in at times) and with vocals present on nearly every track.  The album opens with one of the more promising songs on the album, "Little White Doves," which begins with a very catchy beat and melody but begins to sound monotonous by the time the chorus rolls around.  "Electric Love" has a heavier rock sound with a trance influenced beat but the band doesn't do anything to make the song uniquely distinguishable or memorable.  "Emma" is more in the style of an electropop song by integrating a slower backing beat and subtle electric guitar work to be the most distinctive song on the album. "Round and Round" has a goa influenced trance beat but the accompanying melody is so tired and dated that listeners won't find anything new or interesting with the song unless they've been in a coma since the mid-90's. 

Electric Love is a primarily competent album that, unfortunately, never really goes anywhere.  The beats, vocals, and production work are all fine by there's no spark found anywhere on the album.  In fact, some of the songs sound dated with a few of the tracks being very similar to some Global Underground tracks released over a decade ago.  This album becomes monotonous early on and it quite easily loses your attention for extended periods.  Even the addition of an electric guitar on a couple of tracks to help give the songs a more hard rocking feel failed to titillate.  It might be passable as background music but it's not an album I'll be breaking out at parties anytime soon unless my intent is to send everyone else home. 

Score:  4/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Emma" [sample a "preview" of the song below]

Rubik Solar - Rubik is an electropop/indie rock act from Helsinki, Finland.  This album, the band's third full-length release overall, drops in Europe today although I'm not sure when the album is getting its U.S. and UK releases (its not currently listed on the American versions of Amazon or iTunes and only an import version is available on Amazon UK).  However, I was able to listen to the album this week thanks to Spinner.com so I thought I'd write and post my review while the details are still fresh in my mind.

The album opens with a throwaway 20-second intro track which segues and bridges to "World Around You" which has a quick tempo beat with exquisitely layered electric guitars and synthesizers.  Listeners are instantly carried along with the song's sweeping melody and catchy drum work.  "Storm in a Glass of Water" is a more sprawling song that incorporates and accentuates an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and bass, real drums, dual harmony male and female vocals, and subdued keyboard/synthesizer work at various moments to create a song with many highs and lows.  "Laws of Gravity" has a more standard pop melody and style in a track that has the best chance for mass appeal in what will likely be their first single off the album.  "Towers Upon Towers" begins slowly with a sole feedback loop and then adding ethereal sounding vocals before giving way to a savvy but simple keyboard melody in a song with a dream-like quality. 

Solar turns out to be quite a fresh release from a band I was familiar with by name only.  Their musical style would best be described as part electropop and part folk rock with them incorporating many of the indie styles in between those two genres into their songs.  Their vocals on this release is reminiscent of an Animal Collective and Arcade Fire hybrid with a slightly higher tenor but the style of singing is very similar to both bands' with the vocalists nearly harmonizing with the somewhat abstract melodies of the songs.  The beginning of the album has the more catchy tunes, the middle has the more somber tracks, and the end has the more eclectic tracks.  I found the beginning of the album especially charming with the middle and the end alternating between captivating and drawn out. 

Score:  7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "World Around You" [sample it below] and "Laws of Gravity"

New Music from 4/19/2011 - Gorillaz, French Horn Rebellion, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Lanu

Gorillaz The Fall - The animated band co-created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett release a new album just over a year after Plastic Beach was released.  Albarn and company recorded this album on his iPad while on the American leg of their tour for Beach which is why there are a lot less guest musicians/vocalists making an appearance on this album.  This album was made available as a download to members of the official Gorillaz fan club Sub Division (£29.99/$45.00 for an annual membership) on Christmas last year and is being released to the rest of the world today. 

Several of the songs have the name of a city, state, or other physical location to parallel the band's journey while creating the album.  The album itself opens with the psy ambient (or psybient) "Phoner to Arizona" which is one of several tracks on the disc sans vocals.  It is a simple but catchy enough tune that feels like something Albarn put together to test the different audio effects he could pull off on the iPad. "Revolving Doors" sounds like a throwback Albarn song with jangly acoustic guitars laying down the main rhythm and his distinctive voice being featured more prominently that I enjoyed a great deal.  "Bobby in Phoenix" featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Womack is one of two songs that have a known guest on it (the other is the less enjoyable "HillBilly Man" featuring former The Clash guitarist Mick Jones) which has a southern blues melody and shows Womack can still deliver the goods.  

The Fall is an interesting release that never overwhelms you but it does sneakily allow you to get sucked in on repeated listens.  Some of the songs sound more like something from a The Good, The Bad & The Ugly release (another Damon Albarn band) than like something from one of the Gorillaz's previous albums.  On this release, the band moves away from the heavy glam/acid sound that was so prevalent on Plastic Beach, not quite back to the sound they exhibited on their first album, but closer to it.  The music you get has a lighter, synth heavy, ambient rock feel that's better suited for an early morning after party than for the party itself.  Beyond the fact that the over half the songs have the name of a physical location in it, the album can be compared to a weekend drive down the coast:  the drive itself is a pleasant enough experience but you'll be hard pressed to remember the specific details of it all years down the road. 

Score: 8/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Revolving Doors" [sample it below] and "Amarillo"

French Horn Rebellion The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion - FHR consists of two brothers, Robert and David Perlick-Molinari, originally from Milwaukee but are now based out of New York.  One of the brothers was actually an accomplished French horn player in college but found that style of making music too rigid and thus formed this electronica heavy synthpop band with his brother.  David also has done some work as a producer as well engineering MGMT's "Time To Pretend" EP.  


If you heard their EP released last year, both songs from that release ("This Moment" and " Last Summer") can be found on this album although you don't get any of the three remixed versions from the EP.  "Up All Night" leads off the album which is a pop song driven by synthesizers and electronic beeps with the vocal levels seeming muted compared to the other sounds featured on the track that I had a hard time getting into.  "This Moment" follows and instantly draws you in with groovy rhythm and catchy hook in a really well written and well executed track that's part OMD and part eurodance.  The guitar rhythm that ends "This Moment" immediately continues and segues into the next track, "Last Summer," which is a more standard and dour pop song reminiscing about "the best summer I could ever have."  While "This Moment" is seemingly unchanged from the version presented on last year's EP, "Last Summer" seems like a cleaner and better version (although, truthfully, I couldn't find my copy of the EP to do a side-by-side comparison).  "What I Want" is a keyboard/synthesizer driven electropop song that starts slowly with just the beat before layering on the other sounds to strongly builds to what becomes a very sweeping song. 


The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion is an ambitious and strong debut studio album whose biggest problem is finding consistency over the entire disc.  It's not one specific style or certain tempo of music that consistently sounds better on the album meaning the good and the bad is spread out pretty evenly between the fast and slow songs as well as the more electronica heavy songs and the more pop sounding tracks.  Whether this exhibits a bigger problem in the songwriting or in the production work probably can only be determined with future releases.  However the album has enough positives that the inconsistencies are only a small problem in the long run and the album ends up being enjoyable even with their presence.  

Score:  7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "This Moment" [sample it below] and "What I Want"

Del the Funky Homosapien Golden Era - Del is a hip-hop artist from Oakland that released the critic's darling 2000 album Deltron 3030.  I thought it was fitting to review his new album being released this week because Del had a hand in a past hit for another band that is releasing an album this week, Gorillaz, providing vocals on the best known song from their first album, "Clint Eastwood."  Golden Era is a 10-track release but if you purchase the CD version of the album it comes bundled with two unreleased albums (each on their own CD) not previously available on disc for a whopping 24 bonus songs giving you 34 songs in total--all for the cost of a single CD!  What a bargain!  This review only covers the 10-track main disc and not the bonus discs. 


The funk heavy "Break the Bank" wisely opens the album with a melody that's part P-Funk and part Marden Hill with a solid, albeit somewhat monotone, rap by Del that helps add atmosphere but isn't able to match the catchiness of the Nu-funk melody.  "Double Barrel" is a hard rocking rap song that intelligently fuses electronic guitars and a real drummer to create a song that is slightly more raprock than rapcore and helps elevate the album by incorporating more varied styles than your standard hip-hop album.  "One Out of a Million" has a more robust sound by integrating string instruments for a baroque touch combined with more modern hip-hop mixing techniques and synthesizers to create one of the album's lusher tracks.  "Raw," as the name implies, has a rougher sound with more primitive scratching noises heard first heard on rap records from the 90's but the accompanying rap is one of the best on the album.


Golden Era has a number of tracks that are enjoyable but the album as a whole suffers from inconsistency problems.  Del, who is the cousin of Ice Cube and began his career writing songs for one of Cube's earliest bands (Cube also gets a shout out on the track "One Out of a Million"), has grown over the years and you can find a greater variety in the type of music presented on this album.  Not all of those styles work equally well though with the tracks that incorporate other genres of music having more depth (the funky side of "Break the Bank" and the hard electric guitars of "Double Barrel" being two examples) than the songs that are more strictly hip-hop/rap songs. 


Score:  6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Break the Bank" [sample it below] and "Double Barrel" 

Lanu Her 12 Faces - Lanu is the stage name for Bamboo frontman Lance Ferguson's "solo" act.  I put the word "solo" in quotes because vocals are predominantly provided by gifted Australian singer and rising star Megan Washington (she's credited on about half the songs of the 13-track disc and a couple of the remaining tracks have no lead vocals on them).  This is Lanu's second studio album with his first being released in 2007 although I hadn't heard of this solo act until recently.  The music presented on this album is a mixture of very laid back indie/space age pop that has a French-sounding twist at times. 

The album opens with the jangly and catchy "Beautiful Trash" which has French sounding guitar work at the beginning and is just a fun song with a clever hook and a generally free feeling as typified by the breezy whistling integrated into the track.  "Let Me Down" is a slower tempo lounge song, again with a French-sounding twist, with a slightly darker overtone speaking about how her lover always lets her down.  "Der Hotel Blume" is jaunty song without any lead vocals but the smooth melody and engaging hook won't make you miss the lack of lead vocals any (there are backup singers singing "la-la-la" on the track).  The album ends with a French cover of Roxy Music's "More Than This" which is the second excellent non-standard cover of a Roxy Music song I've heard and mentioned in the past month (the other being Carla Gugino's and Oscar Isaac's cover of "Love is the Drug" off the Sucker Punch soundtrack).  

Her 12 Faces is an enchanting album from beginning to end with no let down in the middle.  The tracks sans vocals are all very good ("1988" and "Jean Paul" are two other standout instrumental tracks) but it is commonly the songs with Megan Washington providing the vocals that are elevated to mesmerizing and memorable levels.  Truthfully, I was only going to review three albums this week but I ended up liking this album so much just from a cursory listening that I had to include it in this week's reviews.  It's perfect lazy day music that would also wonderfully accompany a hip dinner party. 

Score:  9/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Beautiful Trash" [sample it below] and "Let Me Down"

New Music from 4/12/2011 - Elbow, Paul Simon, and Meat Puppets

Elbow Build a Rocket Boys! - Guy Garvey and his indie rocking crew from Manchester, England release the followup to their 2008 Mercury Prize winner (the annual prize for the best album from the UK and Ireland) and their fifth studio album overall.  The album actually came out last month in the UK and has already ranked as high as #2 on their music charts.  A band I've seen live a number of times and they sound as good live as they have on their past albums.  Don't miss 'em if you're going to Coachella this weekend!

The album opens with the soaring 8-minute "The Birds" which is an aural journey that only Elbow can lead you on with its moody guitar driven melody and Garvey's unmistakeable, usually restrained, crooning style that, given the extended length of the track, never feels boring or repetitive.  "Lippy Kids," which comments on youth growing up too quickly and whose lyrics are used as the album's title, opens slowly with quiet bass and keyboard work to better emphasize Garvey's voice and his usual sharp lyric writing before layering on angelic choral backing (thanks to the Halle Youth Choir) and an orchestral sound to create a very sweeping track.  This contrasts well with "Jesus is a Rochdale Girl" which simply employs an easy acoustic guitar melody with sporadic electric keyboard outbursts throughout the entire song. 

With Build a Rocket Boys!, Elbow not only announces they haven't lost a step since 2008's The Seldom Seen Kid but also they are one of the best alternative rock bands releasing music today.  The album is especially deep both in the lush and well layered tunes the band creates and in the complex stories they tell in their songs.  Like their previous albums, Build sucks you in with their tender and subdued music but it's the lyrics with their unique combination of deep meaning, well metered structure, and seductive word choice that will have you coming back for repeated listens.  They don't produce music that will be universally appreciated by all audiences but they have created their own niche of alternative rock that has it own flavor not commonly found on other bands' releases and it is a flavor they do better than anyone else. 

Score:  9.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "The Birds" [sample it below] and "Lippy Kids"

Meat Puppets Lollipop - The longtime Phoenix, Arizona rockers best known for their 1994 album Too High To Die that went Gold, the Meat Puppets release their thirteenth studio album.  The founding Kirkwood brothers, Curt and Chris, are still members of the band although longtime drummer Derrick Bostrom left the band a number of years ago not returning when the band reformed for the second time in 2006.  Originally a punk band, the group's sound has morphed over the years to be more of an alternative rock band with psych rock and country influenced songs.  Considering that it has been 31-years since the band released their debut album, let's see if they are still able to create music that is relevant today.

"Incomplete" leads off the album which has an eerie resemblance to Elvis Costello's music from the 90's plus echoes of the band's past hits.  "Shave It" gently sweeps you along in what turns out to be a fun summer song with a jangly pop melody.  "Baby Don't" has a fun and energetic rockabilly slant with a simple but catchy melody.  "Hour of the Idiot" is the song most reminiscent of their past style with their staple rollicking electric guitar licks and a dual vocal harmony that is present on some of their best work.  Afterwards that there are four songs with a strong country skewing that didn't really appeal to me.  "Way That it Are" saves the second half of the album from being a complete downer with a quick tempo song with its feet firmly in the roots of rock in one of their best songs in over a decade. 

Long removed from their days as a punk band, the music Meat Puppets gives us on Lollipop starts to show the band's age with more pop heavy songs that often have a strong country twang.  The change isn't that surprising though once you take into account that the Kirkwood brothers are both now over 50-years old and nothing is worse to see and hear than an aging punk rocker.  This is not to say that older rockers can't still make music (the duo from Steely Dan were approximately the same age when they released their beautiful, multiple Grammy winning Two Against Nature album a decade ago although they were a rock band and not a punk band originally) but it's usually wise for them to naturally tone down their sound.  There are a couple of individual songs on Lollipop that echo band's sound from the mid-90's and those tracks are standout songs but the album as a whole falls flat more often than not.

Score:  6/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Way That It Are" and "Shave It"

Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What - Unintentionally continuing the theme from the previous review about older rock artists, iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Paul Simon releases his first studio album in five years and his first album on the Concord Music Group label which is one of the better labels at helping aging musicians still make credible albums (see recent releases of Paul McCartney and Angie Stone).  The album is co-produced by Simon and Phil Ramone with Elvis Costello penning the liner notes.  Let's find out if Concord can recreate the magic given to us on many of Simon's albums from past decades like Graceland and Still Crazy After All These Years or if the new album sounds more like a solo Art Garfunkel release.

The album opens with "Getting Ready for Christmas Day" which I found slightly odd for a disc released mid-April.  The song itself is an upbeat folk-pop song with an extremely catchy hook that speaks about exactly what the title says.  "The Afterlife" and "Dazzling Blue" have quick tribal/World music influenced beats and creative songwriting to create two enjoyable tracks.  "Rewrite" is one of the real standout tracks with its sweeping Spanish-influenced acoustic guitar intro and a rhythm and vocal style that is very reminiscent of his past Top-20 hit "Me and Julio..."  Unfortunately, the album does lose some of its steam when the ballads roll around.  Tracks like "Love and Hard Times" and "Question for the Angels" aren't horrible songs by any means (the line from the latter track about the commercialization of Jay-Z is a pretty great reference) but it steals from the vivacity the previous tracks built.  However, the eponymous, blues-heavy closing track helps restore some of the luster. 

So Beautiful or So What is Paul Simon's best album in years if not decades.  The music presented on the 10-song album is an amalgamation of all the styles Simon has given us since he went solo.  Most common is the familiar folk-pop/rock style that Simon seems most comfortable with but you can still find the African and World music influences that powered Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints mixed in intermittently on tracks.  Longtime fans will be absolutely thrilled with this release and even casual fans will find a handful of songs that they can tap their toes to.  The entire album is not perfect with some of the slower ballads seeming to drain some of the life and momentum the previous tracks have built but the good songs on the album far outweigh and outnumber the bad ones.  Easily Simon's most enjoyable album since The Rhythm of the Saints was released over two decades ago.

Score:  8.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "The Afterlife" [sample it below] and "Rewrite"

New Music from 4/5/2011 - The Submarines, The Raveonettes, and Daft Punk

The Submarines Love Notes/Letter Bombs - The married indie pop duo from Los Angeles release their first album in three years and third studio album overall.  Their music has been featured in various media outlets like the piano opening of this song used in an iPhone commercial we've all gotten stuck in our heads, key scenes in hip TV shows ("Nip/Tuck" and "Grey's Anatomy"), and charming indie movies (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) so you are probably unconsciously aware of the band even if you don't know them by name. Let's find out if they were able to create any new music that's equally as catchy.

The album opens with hand clapping before drums, vocals, and a bubblegum melody sweeps you up in the opener "Shoelaces."  "Fire" has catchy synthesizer work and prominently features bandmate Blake Hazard's vocal work in a more serious song about freeing yourself.  "Ivaloo" has a slower tempo where Hazard's and John Dragonetti's singing really compliment each other well to create an ethereal quality in their duet although the melody is less catchy than on earlier tracks.  The first single off the album, "Birds," has a laid back feel with sing-song vocal style and subtle guitar and keyboard work to create a mellow but enjoyable track.  "Tigers" has a synthesized electropop beat and has a more contemporary feel than the more breezy tracks that are the meat of the album. 

Love Note/Letter Bombs is an enjoyable and fun summer pop album.  One positive new addition to this album not found on their older releases is the inclusion of a real drummer (Jim Eno from Spoons) which helps to add a more complete, natural sound to the album.  It's another collection of songs that you will probably soon hear on your favorite TV shows and on various commercials in the upcoming year.  This 10-track album (plus two bonus songs if you get the deluxe version) will be satisfying on a long drive up the coast or as light, jaunty background music while you work. 

Score:  7.5/10

Song(s) to Sample:  "Tigers" and "Birds" [sample it below]

The Raveonettes Raven in the Grave - The Raveonettes in an indie rock male and female duo that calls Denmark home.  Don't worry my English speaking readers, their songs are not sung in Danish.    Their last album In and Out of Control didn't fare well in the U.S. or U.K. but did rank as high as #5 in their native Denmark. 

"Recharge and Revolt," which leads off the album, has a slightly quicker tempo rhythm than I was expecting but the on-the-glum-side axe work definitely doesn't venture far from the band's usual style.  "Forget That You're Young" features a catchy synthesizer melody on top of the moody vocals and electronic guitar hook. "Apparitions," as the name implies, has an otherworldly quality with subdued instrumentation and is sung in a sprite-like singing style.  "Let Me on Out" has a feedback heavy take on a 50's rock guitar riff and a super slow tempo for a song that never seems to get off the ground.  The quicker "Ignite" that follows it and is a much richer song with fuller guitar licks and a more engaging melody. 

The style of music presented to us on Raven in the Grave is very similar to the style they gave us previously.  That style usually features heavy electronic guitar driven songs often with two-part vocal harmonies with dark and edgy lyrical content.  I found this album to be less enjoyable overall than some of their previous releases with the middle of the album being especially monotonous or too overbearing at times.  There's definitely nothing as catchy as my favorite song of theirs from the past, "Dead Sound." 

Score:  6/10
Song(s) to Sample:   "Ignite" [sample it below] and "Forget That You're Young"

Daft Punk Tron: Legacy R3CONF1GUR3D - The flashy French electronica band Daft Punk releases this reworked and remastered version of their soundtrack to the recent sequel of the movie Tron. The reworked version has remixes by many top techno acts like Crystal Method, Moby, Paul Oakenfold, and Photek.  I reviewed the original version of this disc when it came out in December and gave it a 7 out of 10.  Let's see if the remixed versions add or subtract from that score.

14 of the original 22 tracks are reworked for this version (with two separate remixes of "Derezzed") and the order of the songs has been changed.  My favorite song from the original, "Derezzed," leads off the album (the first remix is by Glitch Mob) and has a sped up beat that adds a lot of energy to the track (the second remix of the song by Avicii has more of a Eurodance/breakbeat sound which also makes for a fun song).  "Adagio for TRON" (remixed by Teddybears) captures more of the feel of the original Wendy Carlos score with increased synthesizer sounds that echo what was given to us in the original soundtrack.  "C.L.U." (remixed by Paul Oakenfold) gets a quicker trance beat and feel which somehow adds to the tension of the track and gives it an additional edge that wasn't there before.  "End of the Line" (remixed by Photek) has more synthesizer/keyboard during the slow part of the track but I found it more distracting than beneficial to the song. 

Overall Tron: Legacy R3CONF1GUR3D has been sped up and been made into a more danceable album, something you would have expected from a Daft Punk release.  It's definitely a more enjoyable taken on its own merit than the original which was naturally toned down in several spots to better convey the overall feeling of the images it was being matched with.  This is what I was looking for when I listened to the original release of this album with a more steady trance/dance feel that you expect from Daft Punk.  A much better album overall and one worth purchasing even if you already have the original version that just came out a few months ago. 

Score:  8.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Adagio for TRON" and "C.L.U." [sample it below]