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How Did Daft Punk Go From the Flop of 2005 to the Talk of 2013?

If you’ve been anywhere near the musical environs of the Internet, you know that Daft Punk are a week away from releasing Random Access Memories, the robotic duo’s first studio LP in eight years. The album will no doubt debut in the upper reaches of the Billboard charts, completing a stunning turnaround for Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Less than a decade ago, Daft Punk were considered deader than disco when third studio album, Human After All, was eviscerated by critics and ignored by the general public, peaking at an unimpressive No. 98. Yet, here we are in 2013, and the duo is dropping the most anticipated thing this side of Iron Man 3. It’s been one of pop culture’s greatest reclamation projects, but the funky Frenchmen didn’t do it alone: Here’s how Daft Punk got harder, better, faster, stronger, and more popular in the interim.