Maps of Music

Alive 2007 (2007)

Where the lyrics of Alive 2007 take you, and where it was really made.

This live album was recorded from one night at a Paris arena, and in 2025 an excerpt of it became part of a Fortnite experience.

Key places

Paris arena, 14 June 2007 (2007)

Recording site Accor Arena — The album was taken from Daft Punk's performance at this Paris arena on 14 June 2007 during the Alive tour. The venue is now known as Accor Arena. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Alive 2007: second live album by French electronic duo Daft Punk
• Released 19 November 2007 by Virgin Records
• Taken from one performance at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, on 14 June 2007
• Part of the Alive tour
• Mixes many of the duo's popular tracks with synthesisers, mixers and live effects
• Mixes vocal elements from Too Long with new music
• Special edition adds a 50-page book of tour photographs taken by DJ Falcon, and the encore on a second disc
• North American retail release delayed to 4 December 2007 due to production problems
• Download released 20 November 2007; UK release 25 February 2008
• A performance of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger was released as a single

Background

• 2006: first shows announced; Coachella on 29 April, their first US performance since 1997
• 2007 shows: Bercy, Wireless, RockNess, Oxegen and Lollapalooza
• Encore featured Bangalter's side projects Stardust and Together
• For the 2007 shows, Daft Punk added Burnin' and Phoenix and an encore
• Never Ever Land in Australia, December 2007, announced as an extension of the Alive 2007 tour

Recording

• Visuals set up by XL Video, using eight-core Mac Pro units running Catalyst v4 and Final Cut Pro
• Live setup: Ableton Live on custom-made supercomputers, controlled with Behringer BCR2000 MIDI controllers
• Minimoog Voyager RME units and mixers allowed looping, sample distortion and live processing
• Most equipment was stored in offstage towers during performances

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Daft Punk is a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo.
• The duo grew out of their earlier band Darlin', which disbanded after around six months. The name Daft Punk came from a Melody Maker review of Darlin' that called their music "a daft, punky thrash."
• They were managed from 1996 to 2008 by Pedro Winter, head of Ed Banger Records.

Members

• Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo are the two core members.
• From 1999 to 2021 they performed in robot personas, with Bangalter in a silver helmet and Homem-Christo in gold.

Career

• The debut album Homework (1997) on Virgin Records was backed by the singles "Around the World" and "Da Funk".
• Discovery (2001) earned acclaim and hit singles including "One More Time", "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". It became the basis for the animated film Interstella 5555 (2003).
• Human After All (2005) received mixed reviews. The duo also directed the film Electroma (2006).
• The Alive 2006/2007 tour is credited with broadening the appeal of dance music in North America. Alive 2007 won a Grammy.
• They composed the score for Tron: Legacy (2010).
• Random Access Memories (2013), released on Columbia Records, won five Grammy Awards in 2014, including Album of the Year. Its single "Get Lucky" was their first UK number-one.
• "Starboy" with the Weeknd (2016) was their only US Billboard Hot 100 number one.
• They announced their split in February 2021 after 28 years.
• Rolling Stone ranked them the 12th-greatest musical duo of all time in 2015.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

Reappraisal

• Metacritic: score of 78 out of 100, indicating generally favourable reviews
• Pitchfork: called it the Ultimate Daft Punk Mixtape, finding Human After All songs constantly improved and born anew in the live set
• AllMusic: felt like a greatest-hits live concert energized by weaving songs in and out of each other; considered it weaker than Alive 1997
• Sputnikmusic (Dave de Sylvia): four stars out of five, calling it as exciting a collection of music as any released that year despite a few individual disappointments
• Entertainment Weekly: the live crowd enhanced the positive mood of the performance
• Rolling Stone: the album loses some of the essential experience of attending the live Daft Punk events
• The Boston Phoenix: the package would have benefited from more video content
• Robert Christgau: in his first positive review for a Daft Punk album, a full video representation was avoided because too much scale would be lost
• The Star: the release restored the duo's reputation after the mixed reception for Human After All

Records

• 51st Grammy Awards: Best Electronic/Dance Album
• Single Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: Best Dance Recording at the same ceremony
• Resident Advisor 2025: ranked third in The Best Electronic Mixes of 2000–25
• December 2014: two vinyl editions released, including a limited collectors box set

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album includes elements of the Busta Rhymes song Touch It, which was originally produced by Swizz Beatz with a sample of Technologic.
• Thomas Bangalter first suggested a DVD of the show but later said amateur footage shared online felt more compelling.
• The Fortnite experience based on the album launched on 27 September 2025, developed with Cédric Hervet, Daft Punk's creative director.
• The introduction of the live show used the five-note sequence from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• Robert Christgau argued that a full video version would lose too much scale, flesh and bodily effluvia.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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