Deserting the shrieking acid house hysteria of their early work, the album moves in the same smooth filtered disco circles as the European dance smashes that were co-produced by DP's Thomas Bangalter during the group's long interim.
To say that the album is flawless would be something of a misstep, but even when Discovery flounders, it never ceases to provide an intriguing and far-reaching sonic vision unmatched by anything that’s come before it.
Yes zey drive you up zee wall, yes zey sound like Kraftwerk covering Barry Manilow through a vocoder…but for zees little time, at zees point in time zey sound good.
The first five songs are the work of a real band, Daft Punk, whoever the hell they are ... As for the rest, it grows anonymous, and not in the artful way that Daft Punk used to capitalize on.
Most of Discovery probably sounded like a good idea at the time, but there's not much point in having ideas if they don't work. At worst, Discovery is less a record than a hypothesis. At best - like a lot of other records these days - it just sounds like Daft Punk's first album.