Is Daft Punk’s New Video a Masterstroke or a Tired Relic?

Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas gets all dolled up as a Napoleon-era mannequin museum piece in Daft Punk's new video for "Instant Crush."

In the clip, the mannequin version of Casablancas falls for a young maiden doll, but due to a change at the museum, the love dolls are separated until they are tragically reunited in the clip's blazing finale. The museum love story is intercut with the real-life, leather jacket-clad Casablancas preening on a circular platform as he mimes his heavily processed vocals, singing over a mellow groove, "And we will never be alone again / 'Cause it doesn't happen every day / Kinda counted on you being a friend / Can I give it up or give it away."

It's unclear if Daft Punk's helmet-wearing main men Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter appear in the clip; but they might be undercover as a knight in armor, a deep-sea diver, or an astronaut, all of which appear in the video.

Earlier this month, Daft Punk teased the clip on French television. "Instant Crush" is featured on Random Access Memories, the same album that spawned the song of the summer "Get Lucky" as well as the follow-up single "Lose Yourself to Dance."

The duo is offering an elaborate boxed set of the album, which has made many of the year's "best of" lists, via their website for a whopping $275. Packaged in a cloth-bound box with the album's title in gold foil, it includes a pair of gold- and silver-plated USB drives featuring high-resolution versions of the album's bonus tracks; as well as videos of "Lose Yourself to Dance" and the Coachella version of "Get Lucky," a pair of robot posters, a 56-page hardcover book with a foreword by Paul Williams, a 180-grade double-vinyl version of the album, a 10-inch version of "Giorgio by Moroder," and more.

Casablancas is just one of several noted collaborators featured on Random Access Memories. The set also includes collaborations with noted disco producer Giorgio Moroder, Chic's Nile Rodgers, current-day hitmaker Pharrell Williams, indie star Panda Bear, legendary songwriter Paul Williams, and others. The duo has been spotlighting their guest stars on a web series, dubbed "The Collaborators," on their website, but so far an episode featuring Casablancas has yet to materialize.

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