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Comment by aphextron | Hacker News Reader

I don't believe it yet. But I can see the logic. They're kind of in a Half Life 3 situation with regards to Random Access Memories. At this point, there's almost no way imaginable they could top it, and anything they do come out with will probably be compared unfavorably.

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I absolutely did not expect another album, at least not anytime soon, for precisely the same reason (well, I didn't put it in the hl3 metaphor). But this official breakup announcement still breaks my heart, despite not even having listened to them that much.

They could have just left their costumes standing, as the gleaming pop-house god reservists that they are (except while temporarily leaving reservist status) and silently move on to doing other projects, as they've always done.

Really wonder what triggered the announcement. My guess is either heavy disagreement, perhaps about retiring the bots and continuing as Thomas and Guy-Manuel, or the total opposite, becoming aware that they were likely fading out of those roles forever and deciding that the bots deserve to go with a bang.

Also wondering what it is - my money is on them wanting to go their own way, which they've done in the past while keeping the robots going (they put out a lot of solo material in the late 90s / early 00s) - but I guess it's different this time as its been so long.

I just want new sample-based music. Fancy synths and orchestras sound awesome, but IMHO they are almost unmatched when it comes to chopping up samples and making incredible, emotional, catchy music out of it.

I don't know how much meaning you can take from the farewell video. But, to me, it looked like one of them couldn't go on anymore.

Good point. If, hopefully not, it was something like a sudden health issue, sampling that movie scene would be the single most awesomely daft punk way to announce it.

The farewell video is a clip from a prior work of theirs circa 2006, so I'm not sure how much can be translated from the clip to the real world circumstances behind the breakup. Of course, their selection of this clip to make the announcement in lieu of anything else could be construed as some sort of statement. Part of me wants to know everything, part of me prefers the mystery.

I thought RAM was already on the downturn. They peaked with Discovery and Alive 2007 in my opinion.

RAM felt producer nostalgia based, legend namedropping and such. The daft spirit was gone to me.

I mean, it’s basically the album version of “Teachers” off Homework :P

I always felt RAM wasn't so much a downturn, just too different from their past work (which was the reason I liked them so much).

I suspect the reason is the duo simply wanting to do different things. After all, they've been Daft Punk for almost 3 decades.

Everyone has their own opinion on the content, but RAM won the most prestigious Grammy Award. From a recognition perspective there's not really anywhere to go but down.

Grammys are a joke. In 2014 Macklemore’s album “The Heist” beat out Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid Maad City” for best hip hop album.

Please, it hurts to think about.

Alive 2007 is my absolute favourite. I often think that 2007 remixes are better then the originals.

I remember my mind was blown when i first heard #3 Television rules nation / Crescendolls, when it transition back to Television with a drop... absolute masterpiece of electro music

Human After All was already on the downturn.

To me RAM sounds like an Air album, not a Daft Punk album. I don't consider that a bad thing though.

I thought I was the only person who thought this. Greetings thought sibling. Also not a bad thing, I like Air just fine but I expect an Air album from them, not Daft Punk.

The Tron soundtrack on the same order as Discovery and Alive 2007. Felt much more like Daft Punk than RAM, IMHO.

To be honest, I thought the (secret?) purpose of RAM was to give them good material for sampling so they could release other album.

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