For the most part, growing up in Florida wasn't that great as far as the electronic music scene was concerned. I listened to a lot of Florida breaks / bass and drum & bass until this came out. The album Homework was my first experience with the whole filtered funk house sound. "Da Funk(1)" and "Around the World(2)" were my jams for the longest time. Hearing this stuff led me to finding out about Trouble Men, Le Knight Club, Pepe, Dimitri and other 90's French house producers. Daft Punk was one of those groups that pretty much broke out of the DJ culture scene and into the mainstream like Kenny Dope/Bucketheads with the track "The Bomb". They had videos on MTV. People pretty much forgot about Daft Punk when Discovery came out, even though that might be their best album to date, and now here we are. Do you guys and girls realize that this album is over 10 years old? This is making me feel old now. I was a sophomore in high school when this came out. It's kind of crazy how everyone is getting into house music again now. I guess it's better late than never. With Homework, I wouldn't go so far as to use the word "classic," but I would use the word "standard." This album is a modern house standard. This is not for the kitschy DJ sets. This is real house for real electronic music fans. If you've ever heard "Alive(3)," you already know what I'm talking about. Also, "Teachers(4)," "Burning(5)" and "Revolution 909(6)" have always been slept on jams. Enjoy. P.S. If you have a copy of the 12" single of the live version of "Alive" that came out in 1997, hold on to it. It's one of those records that belongs on your wall.

reviewed by David Pitts