The French duo Daft Punk's essential, career-defining insight is that the problem with disco the first time around was not that it was stupid but that it was not stupid enough. 

 Alive 1997 is an extended rehash of four Homework tracks with a bit of crowd noise. It's great if you have a billion-watt sound system and a mountain of drugs at home, but it's not too useful otherwise.  

 Daft Punk took its time recording the followup; meanwhile, Bangalter and some friends, as Stardust, made a glorious and much-compiled straight-up disco single "Music Sounds Better With You." Discovery follows the same path, throwing in vocoders. 

 Human After All is a disappointing studio album about the evils of technology (or something), with some great moments ("The Prime of Your Life"), some riff-heavy rock ("Robot Rock"), and too many raw grooves that go nowhere.  

 Musique is a very good hits collection, though you may be better off just buying the first two albums.  

 Alive 2007 leans too much on recent work, but is still a lot of fun: Bangalyer and de Homem Christo, who regularly wear robot costumes and play in front of a giant pyramid of lights, bring the intensity.