Cole Cuchna

common chord modulation.

Understanding how deliberate Daft Punk were in both grouping these songs by key and in crafting a seamless transition between them, we might begin to wonder if there's a deeper reason or symbolism behind these groupings.

One possible explanation lies in the physical format of the album itself.

As a tribute to recorded music's golden era of the 1970s and early 80s, Random Access Memories was made specifically with vinyl in mind, a format that naturally divides music into distinct sides.

Each side of a standard vinyl holds roughly 18 to 22 minutes of music, meaning that to experience a full album, the listener had to physically flip the record.

And when we map these harmonic groupings onto that format, the structure becomes pretty clear.

The first three tracks, all in A minor, occupy side A of the first vinyl.

Flip the record and side B opens with Within, which modulates from A minor to Bb minor, the keys shared by all three tracks on this side.

Now I'll have more to say about the significance of these groupings later, but for now I think it's impressive enough to recognize just how intentional this key-based structure really is, epitomizing the level of thought and care that went into every aspect of Random Access Memories.

Now eventually, Chilly Gonzales' solo piano is joined by the rest of the band, and Within establishes itself as a ballad.

A ballad fronted by the same forlorn robot voice we heard back on track 2, The Game of Love.

Recall that song found the robot emoting over emotions he knows he can't really feel.

We also discussed how the song embodied Daft Punk's use of the robot character on the album in general, with Tomas saying quote,

That's maybe the story of this record, the story of these robots or robotic voices that are trying to feel an emotion, or trying to have their robotic side going toward humanity, in a world where human beings are gradually going toward technology and robots.

We were trying to make robotic voices sound the most human they've ever sounded, in terms of expressivity and emotion.

A robot that is sad because he cannot feel."

The voice heard on Within also embodies these same characteristics, as the song is essentially a robot in the middle of an existential identity crisis.

There's a world within me that I cannot explain.

This is consciousness without comprehension.

The robot is advanced enough to be self-aware, but lacks the emotional framework to understand what that awareness actually means.