Cole Cuchna

The result is this lingering sense of unresolved tension, which is the perfect musical reflection of the unrequited love at the heart of the track.

And I'm not the only one to hear this in the song's harmony.

It's something pianist, composer, and Daft Punk collaborator Trilly Gonzalez also pointed out when asked about his favorite harmony in their catalog.

Now, while the story of digital love unfolds rather quickly, luckily for us, the song still has a long way to go.

Lyrically, the remainder of the song finds the narrator living in the aftermath of this dream, living with the weight of glimpsing something he will never truly see.

I absolutely love this section of the song, especially those little synth riffs that fill the space between the sung phrases.

It's another moment that reminds me of Penny Lane, where the gaps between lyrics are likewise filled with the trumpet, albeit a real one, not a synth made to sound like one.

Now we're about a minute and a half into digital love and already we've experienced so much.

We've passed through a glowing dreamlike portal in the intro, felt the rush of pure romance and connection on the dance floor, suffered the letdown of realizing it was only a dream, and I've been left with that lingering ache, yearning for a moment or feeling that may never return.

Still, there's something we haven't heard yet in the song, something Daft Punk have been holding back for nearly two minutes.

Can you guess what it is?

I'll give you a hint.

Yes, up until this point of the song, Daft Punk haven't introduced their own kick drum.

The only kick we've heard comes from the drums in the sample loop, and even that has been heavily filtered, far from the deep, pulsing thump we've come to expect in a Daft Punk track.

Tomas and Guimond have been holding the kick back like a card player clutching an ace, waiting for the exact right moment to play it.

And this restraint is what makes What Happens Next so powerful.

First, they put the sample loop through the most extreme filtering we've heard yet, stripping away the low and mid frequencies until it sounds like it's coming through an old transistor radio, dropping the song's dynamics to their quietest point since the intro.

It's an intentional low that sets up the high to come, when the sample loop snaps back to full fidelity and the drums finally arrive in an explosive, euphoric rush.

Having earned their way to this high, Daft Punk smartly ride it straight through to the next section, introducing a new stuttering syncopated sample loop.

Let's hear this section first, then break down how they made it.