Customer Reviews

Human After All: Remixes

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This rating doesn't reflect the quality of the music- the remixes range from middling to excellent- but the disc itself, which is heavily copy-protected and unplayable by most PCs and many car stereos.

This is a very good choice for Daft Punk fans.It's a hard to get album and it's a limited edition one.It has much better remixes than Daft Club which by the way, are made by some good artists such as Justice or Para One.
The only problem with this album is that it's almost impossible to download it to iTunes,which is something dissapointing for people who want the songs in their iPod.

French techno sensation Daft Punk gained worldwide renown with their 1999 single "Around the World" from the Discovery album. Their second release titled Discovery introduced the world to a more synthesized pop style including singles such as "One More Time", "Face to Face", and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". The third track is also familiar to Hip-Hop fans after American rap artist Kanye West used it as a mash-up it in his hit single "Stronger" off of his 2007 album, Graduation. Their third album Human After All was released in March of 2005 and was met with mixed praise and criticism due to a consistent style deemed repetitive by many fans and critics. Although it may not contain as many hits as Discovery, this album shows Daft Punk's ability to create dynamic, complex, and generally awesome techno.
The opening track, "Human After All" is an extremely high-tempo piece that builds up by layering various computer-generated melodies and sampled tones leading into a highly distorted voice repeating "we are human after all." This brings us back to their first hit "Around the World" but with more complex and variable sounds. Despite the strong presence of electronic effects that is to be expected in an album of this genre, Daft Punk mixes in clearly sampled sounds such as the high-paced drum intro to the second track, "Robot Rock." This and the first track were two of four singles taken from the album (the other two were "Technologic" and "The Prime Time of Your Life") and do show repetition. Both are constructed of repeating layered electronic melodies with occasional robot-like voices intermittently chanting the title of the song. That said, both are extremely catchy and have a powerful influence on the desire to hit the often-dreaded repeat button.
Of the following three tracks, "Steam Machine" and "The Brainwasher" are almost forgettable. They do show intuitive use of synthesized sounds and a great talent to compose a single flowing song out of several heterogeneous electronic melodies but they seem to have been almost randomly assembled out of these components. They remain up beat and progress seemingly quickly. On the other hand, "Make Love" and "Emotion" are tracks that provide alternate tempo and mood for listeners. For example, "Make Love" fades in from silence and has a much more toned down and relaxed sound. Its imitates the sound of a piano, percussion, and guitar to create a loop that although it is high-tempo, has a powerful calming effect. There are intermittent sounds of humming and drawn out calls that start out quiet and throughout the song become more prominent. These tracks provide a drastic shift from the rest of the album and shows dexterity and the ability to create tracks that appeal to all tastes and moods.
Another such shift is provided by the nineteen second "On/Off". This track is an interesting mix of random sampled TV broadcasts and sounds as if you are actually listening to a TV that is actually skipping through many channels. The effects between samples sound like an old-style television switching between frequencies. There is music, news, and what seem to be samples from old TV shows in English and several other languages. This provides a well-rounded approach to presenting the problem addressed in the following song, "Television Rules the Nation". This track and "Technologic" provide social commentary between sections of simple and repetitive sound that builds through the entire duration. The layering and again, ability to create a cohesive song out of so many components is awe-inspiring and extremely enjoyable. Like previous tracks, the repeated use of the song title in "Television Rules the Nation" provides a core to the track that pulls the listener back to a central space while listening to the song and then builds upon their perception of the track with the aforementioned composition techniques. "Technologic" employs a series of more complex repetition through a robot voice that takes the listener through a sequence of technological instances or consumer practices, such as "buy it, use it, break it, fix it . . ."
Overall, it is easy to see how people can criticize this album for being repetitive. That being said, although the songs do have a similar (and in some cases, identical) style, each song is unique. This is due to Daft Punk's unparalleled ability to compose complex, unified, and catchy songs through expert use of modern electronic techniques such as sampling, synthesis, and their use of computer technology. Human After All isn't perfect but it is certainly worth listening to.

So this is a great Daft Punk CD but it's only recomended for Daft Punk fans. It's hard to find since there are only 3,000 copys. Remixes are great and that's all. 5/5

As we learned when Daft Club came out, listening to other artists remix Daft Punk songs reminds you how wonderful Daft Punk are. None of these artists are at all bad, I'm a fan of most of their regualr work. However the only good remix on this album is the final track, Robot Rock as remixed by none other than Daft Punk themselves! If Daft Punk put out a remix album where they did all the remixes it'd be phenomenal. Until then, dont waste your money. This album gets 2 stars for the remix of Robot Rock; I'd have given the album 1 star if the track was not on it.