Doin' It Right

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Daft Punk referred to "Doin' It Right" as the only purely electronic piece on the album, with a modern style. [2] Unlike the rest of Random Access Memories, the instrumental accompaniment was achieved without session musicians and consists solely of a modular synthesizer performed by Daft Punk. [6] Jeremy Abbott of Mixmag noted that, "Light and airy synths are introduced half way through to make this a fantastic understated ballad." [7] The song is in the key of E♭m, and performs in common time at a tempo of 89 beats per minute. [8] The vocals range exactly two octaves. The chord progression of A♭sus2—A♭m—G♭/B♭—C♭sus2—C♭—D♭—E♭sus2—E♭m—D♭—C♭sus—C♭ is followed throughout. [9]

"Doin' It Right" is a snare-and-vocoder-driven track [10] with vocals by Panda Bear, and a vocoder loop singing the lyric "Doing it right/everybody will be dancing/and we'll feeling it right/everybody will be dancing/and be doing it right/everybody will be dancing/and we'll feeling it right/everybody will be dancing tonight". The vocoder part stops when Panda Bear sings the lyric "If you lose your way tonight/ That's how you know the magic's right," which, according to Pitchfork Media, is "presumably for emphasis, and we know that magic is important to Daft Punk." [9] [11] Regarding the musical style, a Clash review noted that the song has "a bit of an Afrika Bambaataa-proto-electro vibe" [1] while Pitchfork called it "a terrifically uplifting bit of electro-pop." [12] Critics have also noted that the rhythmic structure resembles that of trap music. [13] [14]

Critical reception

Pitchfork Media gave the song a very positive review and designated it "Best New Music." GQ 's Zach Baron described "Doin' It Right" as effectively being a Panda Bear solo track that happened to be part of the album. [15] NME noted that, "There's a Trojan Robot for a few seconds, then he opens his belly and out pops Panda Bear to sack the ancient city." [16] Both Pitchfork and Paperblog considered the track the best out of the entire album, with Pitchfork calling the track the LP's "strongest statement of purpose, a moment where two artists with a focus on self-betterment align their chakras," [11] and Paperblog calling it the "most highly-anticipated." [17] Spin called Panda Bear's lyrics in the song "as lysergic and endearing as ever." [18] Refinery29 wrote that, "for fans of Daft Punk, this is the kind of core track you're guaranteed to love; hardcore Panda Bear lovers might have a slightly harder time latching on," [19] while Billboard said the song gave "a fascinating contrast, although, oddly enough, Panda Bear's earnest cries are more successful than the tiresome mechanics of the Daft Punk vocals." [20] The A.V. Club found the collaboration to be a "befitting and well-executed pairing." [10] In contrast to the positive critical response, PopMatters called it the only letdown of the album, as they felt it went away from the LP's concept "entirely both in style and in production (being the only fully electronic track) and feels like a guest production someone forcefully crammed into the tracklist." [21]

Track listing

Promotional single
  1. "Doin' It Right" – 4:14

Personnel

Credits adapted from Random Access Memories liner notes. [6]

Chart positions

Weekly charts

"Doin' It Right"
Daft Punk - "Doin' it Right" (Promotional Single).jpg
Single by Daft Punk featuring Panda Bear
from the album Random Access Memories
Released3 September 2013
Recorded2012
Genre Electro [1]
Length4:11
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Daft Punk
Daft Punk singles chronology
"Lose Yourself to Dance"
(2013)
"Doin' It Right"
(2013)
"Instant Crush"
(2013)
Panda Bear singles chronology
"Surfer's Hymn"
(2011)
"Doin' It Right"
(2013)
"Boys Latin"
(2014)
Chart (2013)Peak
position
France (SNEP) [22] 63
South Korea International Songs (GAON) [23] 42
UK Singles (Official Charts Company) [24] 193
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles ( Billboard ) [25] 11
US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs ( Billboard ) [26] 17

Year-end charts

Chart (2013)Position
US Dance/Electronic Songs (Billboard) [27] 38

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [28] Gold40,000
United States (RIAA) [29] Gold500,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

RegionDateFormatLabel
United States3 September 2013 Alternative radio [30] Columbia

Other versions

In June 2013, an unofficial remix of "Doin' It Right" was released by producer Nicolas Jaar and musician Dave Harrington of the band Darkside, as part of their remix album Daftside. [31] Jaar had previously released remixes of tracks by Grizzly Bear and Brian Eno. [32] In 2016, "Doin' It Right" was remixed by K?d incorporating a mixture of various electronic music styles. [33]

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