Instant Crush - Daft Punk Song History

"Instant Crush" appeared on Random Access Memories in 2013 and features Julian Casablancas of The Strokes on vocals - a pairing that sounds unlikely on paper and works because both parties understood what they were making: a slow, melancholy track that sits somewhere between late-70s soft rock and a film soundtrack.

Casablancas's vocal is processed through heavy pitch correction and distortion, giving it the same treated, non-naturalistic quality that Daft Punk applied to their own voices throughout the album. The effect is a track that sounds human and electronic at the same time - which is exactly the tension Random Access Memories was built around.

Like everything on the album, it was never performed live. In interviews promoting Random Access Memories, the question of touring came up repeatedly; the answer was always deflected. Whether "Instant Crush" could have worked in a live set is one of the genuinely interesting unanswered questions of Daft Punk's final years as a working band.