Great expectations can scupper even robots. Daft Punk's fourth album was always going to suffer by comparison with its Get Lucky calling card, this year's most infectious, fun and glorious earworm. Despite a starry cadre of collaborators, including Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams, Giorgio Moroder, Todd Edwards and Panda Bear, Random Access Memories never convinces as much as it should. You can put that down to the meandering disconnect, prog-disco baloney and vapid listlessness as much as the lack of tunes. There are occasional vibrant splashes of life – Panda Bear's Doin' It Right is a superb meeting of minds, while Give Life Back to Music dials in with the funk. But you're quickly brought back to earth by the seemingly endless, self-indulgent, whimsical, melodramatic excess. For all Daft Punk's grand-scale ambitions and desires, you're left wondering "is that it?"

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Download: Get Lucky, Doin' It Right