Is Daft Punk's "Discovery" supposed to be ironic?

I think in most cases DP is nonironic because they are either making straight up dance traxxx (too functional to be ironic) or getting all 1979 space-age with complete reverence for the original styles and settings albeit updated (lichtensteined) with modern technique. There are plenty of other artists in a similar vein nowadays and I don't think irony even enters into the picture.

and why didn't they tour it do we know ?
surely the best record never to be toured *at all*.

explain please. this is not enough, too vague. nostalgia relates simply to the past. this is extremely confusing piefox, please clarify. how can an album which looks back to a previous era with affection not be nostalgic? this is baffling to say the least.

It's not nostalgia nor is it irony, and I like the idea that there's not a word for it. What I get is the feeling I had as a kid at the Magic Kingdom, after baking in the sun waiting in lines all day, euphoric throughout, and then watching the Main Street Electrical Parade, when it's finally dark and cooler, and the lights & music project a different euphoria: it's all over, you're going home soon, things won't be magical tomorrow. That's "Superheroes" to me.

it's both of those things surely, not exclusively, or with any of the implied disparagement that gets attached to those concepts

thread is an interesting time capsule. I don't get the need to define irony so narrowly here, or to treat it as a dirty word. or the need to justify what DP is doing in futurist/progressive terms (feels v brit music press) to defend it from accusations of revivalism (clearly the worst thing music could be back then)

the album name could still be a pun though. disco? very!

https://media.s-bol.com/NxEXg9Ek03Y8/550x553.jpg

^^That album was in fact nicknamed "Disco, very!" by the members of ELO.

Well, I think the Disneyland comparison is supremely OTM, DP/Discovery as an impossible, manufactured utopia that doesn't purport to be a reality so much as it requires a suspension of disbelief. The trick of their trade is to manipulate or seduce you into checking your skepticism.

So it's easy to understand their attraction to forms that are devoid of cynicism, or mutually incompatible. LRD "Darkdancer" comes to mind as an album from that time which employed unfashionable (then) retro influences to a similar effect

They don’t really sample or evoke well known songs so I the nostalgia factor of “hey, remember this?” is missing imho. It’s also clearly done with love for a certain mood and era, so I’d say the “irony” isn’t there either. I’d rather describe “Discovery” as an homage.

i'm a bit confused as to why someone would think of Discovery as being "ironic". Then again the landscape in 2003 was very different to today.

if anyone is confused by the premise of this thread, keep in mind I was 15 years old when I started it

not an excuse