''Alive 2007'' is the second live album by the French electronic music duo

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

, released on 19 November 2007 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

. It features Daft Punk's performance at the

Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy Palais () may refer to: * Dance hall, popularly a ''palais de danse'', in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK * ''Palais'', French for palace ** Grand Palais, the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées **Petit Palais, an art museum in Paris * Palais River in ...

arena in Paris on 14 June 2007 during their Alive 2007 tour.Exclusive: Daft Punk Unveil Live Album Details

Spin.com ''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. History ...

. Retrieved on 16 September 2007.Alive 2007 teaser
daft-musique.com. Retrieved on 16 September 2007. The set features an assortment of Daft Punk's music, incorporated with synthesisers, mixers and live effects."Daft Punk's Magical Pyramid/Spaceship: Infiltrated!"
. pitchfork.com. Retrieved on 10 December 2007 The album won the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for

Best Electronic/Dance Album The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards — a ceremony that was established in 1958 — to recording artists for quality albums in the dance music and electronica genres. Honors in several cate ...

in 2009. The retail release of ''Alive 2007'' in North America was delayed to 4 December 2007 due to production problemsDaft Punk's Newsletter
EMI. Retrieved on 2 November 2007. It was released as a

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

on 20 November 2007, and was released in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2008.Daft Punk's YouTube channel

youtube.com YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...

. Retrieved on 16 September 2007. The album won a

for

in 2009. A special edition of the album was released that includes the encore from the ''Alive 2007'' tour on a second disc.

Content

''Alive 2007'' is taken from Daft Punk's performance at the

, Paris, on 14 June 2007. Daft Punk performed remixed versions of many of their most popular tracks; for example, they mixed vocal elements from "Too Long" with new music,Bercy Review
thedaftclub.com. Retrieved on 13 September 2007. and mixed elements of "Television Rules the Nation" with "Crescendolls", " Around the World" with "

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a song by French duo Daft Punk, released in October 2001 as the fourth single from their second studio album ''Discovery''. A live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was released as a single fro ...

" and "Superheroes" with "

Human After All ''Human After All'' is the third studio album by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, first released on 14 March 2005 through Virgin Records. Unlike their previous studio album ''Discovery'' (2001), whose sound was inspired by disco and ga ...

". The retail edition of the album includes a 50-page book containing photographs from the tour taken by

DJ Falcon Stéphane Quême (), (born January 2, 1973), known as DJ Falcon, is a French DJ, record producer and photographer. He is the brother of Delphine Quême (Quartet) and a cousin of Alan Braxe (Alain Quême). Career In 1999, Falcon released his firs ...

. The album includes elements of the

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver ...

song " Touch It", the original version of which was produced by

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, rapper, disc jockey (DJ) and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ. At the ag ...

featuring a sample of "

Technologic "Technologic" is a song by French duo Daft Punk from their third studio album, ''Human After All'' (2005). It was released as the second single on 14 June 2005. The music video for "Technologic" was directed by Daft Punk. Composition In the son ...

". Also featured are elements of Gabrielle's "

Forget About the World "Forget About the World" is a song by English singer Gabrielle. It was written by Gabrielle along with Ben Barson, Andy Dean, and Ben Wolff for her self-titled second album (1996). "Forget About the World" did not perform as well as its predece ...

", the original version of which was remixed by Daft Punk for her single. The encore of the ''Alive 2007'' set features Bangalter's side projects: Stardust's " Music Sounds Better with You" and

Together ''ToGetHer'' (, aka Superstar Express) is a 2009 Taiwanese drama starring Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit, Rainie Yang and George Hu. It was produced by Comic International Productions ( 可米國際影視事業股份有限公司) and directed by Linzi ...

's self-titled track "

". In December 2014, two vinyl editions of the album were released. The first being standard black dual LPs and the second being a limited edition collectors boxset. The boxset edition was shipped along with a reissue '' Alive 1997'' vinyl with stickers, Dual Alive 2007 Vinyls in white in a threefold sleeve and a separate white LP with the 'Encore'. Also included is a large hardback 52-page photo book, Alive 2007 concert pass replica, Daft Punk printed

slipmat A slipmat is a circular piece of slippery cloth or synthetic materials disk jockeys place on the turntable platter instead of the traditional rubber mat. Unlike the rubber mat which is made to hold the record firmly in sync with the rotating pl ...

and a download card to download digital versions of the songs.

Tour

In early 2006, Daft Punk announced a number of shows. On 29 April, they performed at the

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...

in California, their first US performance since 1997.

Thomas Bangalter Thomas Bangalter (; born 3 January 1975) is a French musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, DJ and composer. Son of French music composer and artist Daniel Vangarde. He is best known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft ...

initially suggested there would be a DVD release of the show, but later said he felt amateur footage shared online was more compelling.Las Vegas Weekly: Chatting with a robot
Las Vegas Weekly. Retrieved 26 October 2007. Daft Punk later announced shows at

Bercy Bercy () is a neighbourhood in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, the city's 47th administrative neighbourhood. History Some of the oldest vestiges of human occupation in Paris were found on the territory of Bercy, dating from the late Neolithic ...

, Paris,Daft Punk's Official MySpace Page
myspace.com. Retrieved 31 August 2007.

Wireless Festival The Wireless Festival is a rap and urban music festival that takes place every year in London, England. It is owned and managed by Live Nation. While it started as primarily a rock and pop festival, in recent years it has focused on hip hop and ...

and RockNess in June 2007, the

Oxegen Oxegen was a music festival in Ireland, first held from 2004–2011 as a rock and pop festival and again in 2013 with dance and chart acts only. The event was regularly cited as Ireland's biggest music festival, and, by 2009, it was being ci ...

festival in July and

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

in August. Daft Punk announced a world tour, Alive 2007. They played at the RockNess Festival by the banks of

Loch Ness Loch Ness (; gd, Loch Nis ) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately southwest of Inverness. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for clai ...

, Scotland, on 10 June 2007 as the headline act in the 10,000 capacity Clash tent. Part of the tent was removed to allow thousands of people outside to see the show.Clash Magazine Rock Ness Review
. clashmagazine.com. Retrieved 17 June 2007. On 16 June, Daft Punk headlined the third day of the

O2 Wireless Festival The Wireless Festival is a rap and urban music festival that takes place every year in London, England. It is owned and managed by Live Nation. While it started as primarily a rock and pop festival, in recent years it has focused on hip hop and ...

.Wireless Festival review
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. Retrieved 6 July 2007 Daft Punk headlined Stage 2/NME Stage at the Oxegen music festival on 8 July 2007. Their live set was preceded by a showing of the trailer for the film ''

Daft Punk's Electroma ''Daft Punk's Electroma'' (also known as ''Electroma'') is a 2006 avant-garde science fiction film directed by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk. The story revolves around the quest of two robots (the band members, played by Peter Hurteau ...

''.Daft Punk close Oxegen with robotic spectacular
''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''. Retrieved 12 July 2007.Daft Punk Closes Out Oxegen Festival
shoutmouth.com. Retrieved 12 July 2007. Four days later, the duo played at Traffic Torino Free Festival in Parco della Pellerina in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy. Daft Punk headlined the

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

stage on 3 August 2007, the first night of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Their show there was praised by ''Pitchfork'', which wrote that it "was a much-needed reminder of the still-potent power of communicative pop." On 5 August, Daft Punk performed at the

International Centre The International Centre is a multi-purpose convention centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, located near Toronto Pearson International Airport. The International Centre is privately owned and hosts over 450 shows and events each year. History ...

in Toronto followed by a 9 August performance at

KeySpan Park Maimonides Park (formerly MCU Park and KeySpan Park) is a minor league baseball stadium on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. The home team and primary tenant is the New York Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones of ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York.Daft Punk Announce Live Album
side-line.com. Retrieved 31 August 2007. They headlined the

Vegoose Vegoose was an annual Halloween music and arts festival that took place in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike the Bonnaroo Music Festival — put on by the same organizers, Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment — Vegoose does ...

festival in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

on 27 October, along with

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerfor ...

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

and

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple line- ...

. At the end of October, Daft Punk performed in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. They also performed on Friday 2 November 2007 at the Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico and Guadalajara.

Modular Records Modular Recordings (known simply as Modular) is an Australian record label founded in 1998 by Steve Pavlovic that is currently owned by Universal Music Australia. It has released music from local artists such as Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee, The Avala ...

announced that Daft Punk would appear in Australia for an event in December 2007 called Never Ever Land. Daft Punk were supported by their regular acts SebastiAn and

Kavinsky Vincent Belorgey (born 31 July 1975), known professionally as Kavinsky, is a French musician, producer, DJ, and actor. His production style is reminiscent of the electropop film soundtracks of the 1980s. Kavinsky claims that his music is inspire ...

at the appearances, which had been announced as an extension to the ''Alive 2007'' tour. Never Ever Land toured to Melbourne at the

Sidney Myer Music Bowl The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct ...

, Perth at the Esplanade, Brisbane at the Riverstage and finally Sydney at the Sydney Showground Main Arena. A

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

interview with Pedro Winter (Busy P) revealed that Daft Punk's Sydney appearance on 22 December would be their final show for 2007 and the last to feature the pyramid light scheme. Tickets for the Australian tour sold more quickly than for any Daft Punk-related event in their history. For the 2007 shows, Daft Punk added the tracks " Burnin'" and "Phœnix" and an encore. Bangalter explained that the 2006 sets were initially designed for performances within larger festivals, but later refined to accommodate Daft Punk shows, saying "The goal was to try and bring a complete global experience to the audience."Buy It Use It Break It Fix It
''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

''. Retrieved on 6 November 2007. The introduction for the live show featured the five-note sequence used in ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...

''."Daft Punk thrill massive LA crowd"
. ''

''. Retrieved on 14 November 2007.

Technical elements

For the performances, Daft Punk used

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Ableton Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool ...

software on "custom made supercomputers" controlled remotely with

Behringer Behringer is an audio equipment company founded by the Swiss engineer Uli Behringer on 25 January 1989, in Willich, Germany. Behringer was the 14th largest manufacturer of music products in 2007. Behringer is a worldwide, multinational grou ...

BCR2000

MIDI controller A MIDI controller is any hardware or software that generates and transmits Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data to MIDI-enabled devices, typically to trigger sounds and control parameters of an electronic music performance. They mos ...

s and JazzMutant Lemur touchscreen pads. They also used

Minimoog Voyager The Minimoog Voyager or Voyager is a monophonic analog synthesizer, designed by Robert Moog and released in 2002 by Moog Music. The Voyager was modeled after the classic Minimoog synthesizer that was popular in the 1970s, and is meant to be a s ...

RME units, which, with the mixers, allowed them to "mix, shuffle, trigger loops, filter, distort samples, EQ in and out, transpose or destroy and deconstruct synth lines". The majority of the equipment was stored within offstage towers during the performances. The tour visuals were set up by XL Video.XL Video's profile on Apple
Apple. Retrieved on 9 November 2007. The company provided eight-core

Mac Pro Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals that are designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of f ...

units running Catalyst v4 and

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro is a series of non-linear editing, non-linear video editing software programs first developed by Macromedia, Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro 10.6.4, runs on Macintosh, Mac computers power ...

. Daft Punk approached the company with their visual concept for the shows. "They came to us with a pretty fixed idea of what they wanted", said head of XL Video, Richard Burford. "They wanted to mix live video with effects. Using the eight-core Mac Pros, we were able to take in eight digital sources and treat them as video streams. Then they could use Catalyst to coordinate the video with lighting effects and add their own effects in on the fly. The final digital video streams ran to

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

screens."

Reception

The Alive 2007 tour was acclaimed. ''

'' described the set as a "memorable sensory spectacle, both dazzling and deafening" and ''ThisisLondon'' declared it "an almost faultless set of relentless electro euphoria". ''

'' wrote that the performance was "a robotic spectacular", while Shoutmouth described the set as "typically triumphant". The tour is credited for bringing dance music to a wider audience, especially in North America. The ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

'' journalist Gabriel Szatan likened it to the

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

' 1964 performance on ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...

'', which brought

British rock and roll British rock and roll, or sometimes British rock 'n' roll, is a style of popular music based on American rock and roll, which emerged in the late 1950s and was popular until the arrival of beat music in 1962. It was important in establishing Brit ...

to the American mainstream.

Tour dates

Critical reception

On the review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, ''Alive 2007'' has a score of 78 out of 100, indicating "generally favourable reviews." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' regarded it as "the Ultimate Daft Punk Mixtape", finding that songs from ''

'' had been "constantly improved and born anew" for the live set. The sentiment was also shared by

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, stating that "It has the feel of a greatest-hits-live concert, but energized by Daft Punk's talents at weaving songs in and out of each other." AllMusic considered it weaker than '' Alive 1997''. A review by ''

The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' noted that the release and Daft Punk's concurrent tours restored the duo's reputation following the mixed reception for ''Human After All''. Rayner, Ben (4 December 2007)
"Daft Punk redemption"
''

''. Retrieved on 3 September 2008. The use of music from ''Human After All'', which had received mixed reviews, prompted critics to reconsider the album."Daft Punk and the Rise of the New Parisian Nightlife"
''Paper Magazine''. Retrieved on 3 November 2007. The album won the

for

in 2009. Dave de Sylvia of

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

gave ''Alive 2007'' a score of four stars out of five and said, "Despite a few individual disappointments, ''Alive 2007'' is as exciting a collection of music as any released this year." ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' felt that the live crowd enhanced the positive mood of the performance. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' stated that ''Alive 2007'' "loses some of the essential experience" of attending the live Daft Punk events. ''

The Boston Phoenix ''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' a ...

'' also felt that the album package would have benefited from more video content, expressing that a key factor of the live show was its implementation of visual elements. In his first positive review for a Daft Punk album,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

believed that a full video representation was avoided because "too much scale, flesh and bodily effluvia would be lost."

expressed his reasons of not releasing a DVD by stating "the thousands of clips on the internet are better to us than any DVD that could have been released." On 3 December 2008, ''Alive 2007'' and its single "

" received

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nominations for

and

Best Dance Recording The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording (formerly known as Best Dance Recording) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists f ...

, respectively. Both the album and the single were announced as winners during the 51st Grammy Awards pre-telecast ceremony.

Track listing

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Notes

References

External links

Official ''Alive 2007'' website
* * {{Authority control Daft Punk live albums 2007 live albums Virgin Records live albums Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album Albums produced by Thomas Bangalter Albums produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo