"They have officially Gervaised": the best initial reactions to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

We told you it sounded like Toto.

Last night, the most anticipated dance album of the year leaked – and was subsequently made available to stream for free on iTunes. Except that Daft Punk‘s Random Access Memories isn’t a dance album, at least not in the way that Discovery was, and certainly not in the way that Homework was. And although that shouldn’t be surprising – let’s face it, Daft Punk are hardly young men anymore, and as the group’s Thomas Bangalter recently pointed out, it’s about time that they made a soft rock album that everybody hated – the reaction to the album online was, on our radar at least, a largely negative one.

We’ll be posting our full review of Random Access Memories in the coming days, but for now, we thought it would be fun to collect some of our favourite initial thoughts, kneejerk reactions and exchanges from last night’s Twitter listening session – because let’s face it, that’s what May 13, 2013 turned into – from a variety of artists, writers and more. Here they are:

Update: You can now watch Scottish comedian Daft Limmy live-review the album here.

“This daft punk thing needs more gunshots and airhorns”
– Zomby

“Listening to RAM obv. The first track is pish.” – Jackmaster
“it’s better than the second” – Four Tet

“Daft Punk’s new album is an experiment in banality, marketing and reputation. They have officially GERVAISED.”
– DaftLimmy

Maybe lots of people are hating on RAM right now because it’s not very good … It’s not great or even god awful. Just, pish.”
– Lauren Martin, FACT

“What the hell kind of robot made this? A flat battery Fisher Price one after its robot balls had been done by a soldering iron?”
– The Quietus

“Listening to a certain new album; feel like I’m listening to classic rock for old men. Really bored. Dance music reaching its Mojo point”
– Alex Macpherson, FACT

“Obviously pretty late on commenting but the new Daft Punk record is absolutely stunning… Looking forward to hearing it in its full quality next week”
– Skream

“Daft Punk realized they were dinosaurs w/ Human After All, so they released a dinosaur album and fooled us all into believing it could be anything else.”
– Andrew Ryce, Resident Advisor

“I’m glad they haven’t been swept away with today’s awful generic pop formula, instead they kept it Daft Punk.”
– Boddika

“daft punk got a hologram troutman hidden away somewhere … then werner herzog shows up or whatever”
– Zodiac

“SHARE THIS IF UR A CHILD OF THE 90S…REMEMBER WATCHING RECESS AND RUGRATS…REMEMBER DIAL-UP…REMEMBER WHEN DAFT PUNK MADE HOUSE MUSIC?”
– CFCF

“So I listened to this Daft Punk album once while browsing the web. I will now unveil my critique” — the Internet, 5/13/13″
– John Darnielle, Mountain Goats

” Daft Punk is on some next level musical mind control. #LoseYourselfToDance #Touch #Motherboard #DoinItRight #beyond #Contact FEAR MUSIC <3″
– James Ferraro

“Did Andrew Lloyd Webber produce this album or what?!?”
– L-Vis 1990