Wil Williams Writes

In 2022, Vulture‘s Switched On Pop delved into the discography of our queen Britney Spears, hot-ish off the heels of the 2021 #FreeBritney movement. In their “Listening 2 Britney” series, they took one album each episode and dissected its roots and impact. Its thesis was focused on Britney’s importance to the pop landscape, as a “radical new artist” whose talent and meticulousness is often overlooked.

Now, In 2023, they’re returning to the “Listening 2” format for a limited series. The focus? The inimitable, formidable, legendary Daft Punk, just in time for the tenth anniversary of their final album, Random Access Memories. The thesis?

[The] synthesizer is the most important instrument of the 20th Century. [. . .] Synthesizers, robots, and the production of mass media in the last 100-or-so years are completely intertwined.

Nate Sloan, Switched On Pop, “Listening 2 Daft Punk: Homework”

Come on. Alright.

I’m picky when it comes to any podcast, but especially so for podcasts about music. Like comedy or horror, music is so dependent on taste: we can all agree that Song Exploder is a masterpiece conceptually and in execution, but our favorite episodes are likely going to be those that feature songs and artists we already love. It doesn’t help that for me, an exemplary music podcast must do all of the following:

1. Have engaging and knowledgeable hosts,
2. Have a voracious love not just of the song/artist/etc. being discussed, but music as a whole,
3. Teach me something new,
4. Not speak down to me as someone with a decent knowledge of music theory and history,
5. And not alienate my relatively less musically-educated partners, with whom I always want to share great pieces of audio.

It’s those last two points, of course, that are the clincher. How does a podcast cater to both an audience who doesn’t know the difference between a sharp and a flat and an audience who sees a circle of fifths and hisses in vitriol? How does a podcast unpack the history of sound before their episode’s focus, the lasting impact on sound that focus has had, and still not stray too far from diving into the focus itself?

Switched On Pop‘s “Listening 2 Daft Punk” has perfected this formula. With a deep dive into a band that is not just musically virtuosic and groundbreaking, but also universally beloved. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t get hype as fuck when they hear the first chords of Discovery‘s “One More Time.” Do you? No, you don’t. We literally all know this song, and we literally all love it, obviously. Daft Punk is special. Their music is important, and you can feel that in every beat, even if you don’t know exactly why — and explaining why is exactly what Switched On Pop is here to do.

This multi-episode series takes on each album in Daft Punk’s discography chronologically, beginning with 1997’s Homework. But Homework, as the title suggests, didn’t materialize from nowhere; it is a product of rigorous musical study. Hosts Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding map that study through the history of the synthesizer. From the ever-present desire to replace human artistry with an algorithm to keeping transmissions encoded from international wartime interference, each episode cements Daft Punk in a lineage of technology that has fundamentally shifted humanity. Naturally, then, the question at the core of Daft Punk’s robot characters is a consistent theme in each episode: are they robot, or are they human?

But “Listening 2 Daft Punk” isn’t just a history lesson. It is a sumptuous, passionate love letter to modern music. From the adoration of icon Wendy Carlos to desperate attempts to recreate R2D2 with a synth to delighted references to the Beach Boys, Switched On Pop elucidates what makes each Daft Punk record and standout songs work so well. The energy shifts seamlessly between your coolest college professor and your nerd-ass friend infodumping about their hyperfixation, both of which I could not mean as a higher compliment. The enthusiasm drips through each line of each episode, mounting into crescendos when the hosts discuss an especially satisfying musical moment, luxuriating into decrescendos to spend an extra moment or two with a favorite song (“Digital Love,” obviously).

This series is a stunning reminder of what it is to be in love with art, to have art fill you, to have art remind you of what humans (and machines) can do at our most beautiful. It’s both transcendent and grounded. It’s a perfect fit for scholars and casual listeners. It’s about Daft Punk, but it’s also about humanity, and creativity, and synthesis. “Listening 2 Daft Punk” motivated me to go get Discovery on vinyl, finally — and it motivated me to listen to my favorite songs again, but better. After the first two episodes, I found myself returning not just to Daft Punk, but to tricot, and Phoebe Bridgers, and Gustav Holst, and Imogen Heap, and Doechii, and just listening closer. Listening to this series reminded why I love the artists I do so much. I was more tuned in to every layer, every texture, and every beat of every song.

Switched On Pop is already a tremendous resource for unraveling pop music, but this new series feels just as special as each Daft Punk album it elucidates. I can only hope that the next “Listening 2” series will continue to expand on this one like Discovery did for Homework, and I’m thrilled to see which artist they pick next. God, I hope it’s Gorillaz.