When Did Instant Crush Come Out? Release Date & Info

If you have found yourself humming the melancholic, synth-driven melodies of “Instant Crush” and wondering when exactly it entered the world, the answer depends on whether you were listening to the album or waiting for the radio single.

“Instant Crush”—the unforgettable collaboration between French electronic music duo Daft Punk and The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas—was officially unleashed in 2013 through a staggered release.

The Release Timeline

• May 17, 2013: The song first came out as part of Daft Punk’s monumental fourth studio album, Random Access Memories. Fans who purchased or streamed the album on release day were immediately introduced to track number five.
• November 22, 2013: It was officially serviced to radio stations as the fourth single from the album, beginning in Italy before getting wider alternative and triple-A radio pushes in the United States in early January 2014.
• December 5–6, 2013: The iconic, tragic music video directed by Warren Fu premiered, cementing the song’s visual legacy.

How the Collaboration Came to Be

The track’s creation is a fascinating collision of two massive forces in modern music. Daft Punk (Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) were long-time admirers of Julian Casablancas. After running into each other at a New York studio, the duo played Casablancas an instrumental track they were working on.

Casablancas immediately gravitated toward it, laying down vocal melodies and lyrics that blended his signature cynical yet romantic lyricism with Daft Punk’s futuristic vocal processing. True to the album’s organic ethos, the song relied heavily on vintage synthesizers and live instrumentation, blending 1980s synth-pop, rock, and electronic textures.

The Heartbreaking Music Video

A massive part of “Instant Crush’s” enduring popularity is its music video. Set in a dusty museum archive, it tells the tragic love story of two wax figures—a Napoleonic-era soldier modeled directly after Julian Casablancas and a female museum figure. When a fire breaks out in the museum, the figures melt into one another, perfectly capturing the bittersweet, aching emotion of the lyrics.

Over a decade after its release, “Instant Crush” remains a fan-favorite milestone in both Daft Punk’s catalog and Casablancas’ career, representing a shimmering high-water mark of 2010s alternative pop.