French dance duo Daft Punk is up all night to get lucky (and to reward deep-pocketed fans) with a lush deluxe box set version of their brilliant newest album, 2013's Random Access Memories.

Though Random Access Memories doesn't entirely fit the catalogue description that usually guides discussion here at The Second Disc, you might not know that when you hear it. Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, known for their quirky, catchy dance tracks and identity-clouding robot costumes, last released a studio album in 2005, the mixed Human After All. (The band was incredibly busy in the interim years, releasing a Grammy-winning live album in 2007, allowing Kanye West to sample "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" for his chart-topping "Stronger" that same year - dig their joint performance at that year's Grammy Awards - and penned the soundtrack for Disney's sci-fi sequel TRON Legacy in 2010.)

With dance music in a major state of transition - Skrillex and Deadmau5 and "EDM" and dubstep piling up all over the place - many expected Daft Punk, elder statesmen of the genre since the release of Homework in 1997, to step in and show them how to create a killer modern dance album. What few expected was how they did it: by firmly looking back to disco and R&B traditions of a generation before. With a package that recalled Michael Jackson's Thriller (CD and LP labels featured the early '80s design of their new distributor, Columbia Records) and an impressive cadre of collaborators, including CHIC guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder, Paul Williams, guitarist Paul Jackson, Jr., bassist Nathan East, drummers Omar Hakim and John "J.R." Robinson (not to mention modern pals Pharrell Williams, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and Chilly Gonzales), Random Access Memories is a throwback to a time when beats were made, not sequenced, and records were committed to analog tape.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I]

And the results were stunning: besides general worldwide acclaim, the album was a commercial smash all over (moving more than 600,000 units in the U.S. alone) and spawning the inescapable summer earworm "Get Lucky," featuring distinctive guitar licks from Rodgers (the fond memory of which will hopefully carry CHIC into this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class) and smooth vocals from Williams. The track was a worldwide No. 1 hit (missing the pole position only in America, where it peaked at No. 2, their sole Top 40 hit) and broke U.K. records on Spotify, reaching the Top 5 in that country within 48 hours of release. (It ultimately stayed at No. 1 for four weeks.)

After the jump, check out what those robots put into this box set - not to mention the hefty price tag!

The Random Access Memories box is heavy on audiovisual content:

• The full album will be pressed on 180-gram double vinyl. This is the second vinyl pressing for the album this year (the first was a major seller), and will be distinguished by its gold and silver foil Columbia labels.
• One of two special USBs will feature Random Access Memories in high-res (24 bit/88.2 KHz) audio, along with a Japanese bonus track, "Horizon," and a 12" remix of "Get Lucky" by the band themselves. The other USB will feature the promo videos for "Get Lucky" and "Lose Yourself to Dance" as well as the exciting TV ad campaign for the album.
• An additional 10" will feature an extended portion of the interview with super-producer Giorgio Moroder, which was used in part on the track "Giorgio by Moroder."

But there's also a lot of physical goods:

• Booklets. The double LP comes with a special eight-page saddle-stiched booklet featuring original album art, lyrics and credits; additionally, there's a 56-page cloth-bound hardcover book of photos from the recording sessions and video shoots, with a foreword by Paul Williams.
• Other swag includes two eight-layered sets of transparencies featuring schematic cutaways to each of the group's robot heads, and a set of 12" x 24" full-body robot schematics on heavyweight, matte-finished poster paper. A mounted, five-frame snippet of 70mm film featuring production dailies from the "Lose Yourself to Dance" video are also contained herein.

The whole thing comes in a 13" x 13" cloth-bound hardcover box with gold foil-stamped title, with patterned dividers separating the components inside. It retails for $275 at the Sony MyPlay store, so the time to start saving those dollars is now. (Fortunately, there's no indication of a limited production run.)

And the discographical details for the audio are below.

Daft Punk, Random Access Memories (Daft Life/Columbia 88883 71686-1/2, 2013)

1. Give Life Back to Music
2. The Game of Love
3. Giorgio by Moroder
4. Within
5. Instant Crush
6. Lose Yourself to Dance
7. Touch
8. Get Lucky
9. Beyond
10. Motherboard
11. Fragments of Time
12. Doin' It Right
13. Contact
14. Horizon (Japanese bonus track - Columbia/Sony SICP-3817, 2013)
15. Get Lucky (Daft Punk Remix) (12" A-side - Columbia 88883 74691-1, 2013)