Customer Reviews

Human After All

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I noticed quite a few reviewers claim this album is too repetitive. Our French androids' last record, "Discovery," was a very fun and poppy collection of songs that made you just want to dance and have a good time. This new record is less danceable perhaps, and it's certainly not something you can sing along to, but this album has a certain beauty that puts you in a completely different state of mind. That has always been the magic of Daft Punk.

The music is harder, darker, and filled with a broader range of emotion than Daft Punk has previously expressed. The opening track, "Human After All," becomes progressively more tense and seems to speak of a desperate search for identity in a cold world where technology is dehumanizing us, and I would call it my favorite Daft Punk song of all time. This theme continues into tracks like "Television Rules The Nation." There are some dancey, active tracks as well, such as "Robot Rock" and the better known "Technologic" that flows like a well-oiled machine. Tracks such as "Steam Machine" and "The Brainwasher" are harsh and busy like faceless cities where people are all plugged into their electronics and completely disconnected from what they were born with inside. Then there are soft songs that surprised me, "Make Love" and "Emotion." These are dream-like melodies that remind one of simple times, simples touches, simple connections, memories that bring us hope on lonely nights while also reminding us that we are imperfect and in need of love.

"Human After All" is not something you can play at a party. It is something you can zone out on, something that can put you in another world. It is something to listen to while you are drawing or writing, while driving alone at night, while staring up at your ceiling in your room and wondering if you're the only person alive. It is a powerful, introverted, emotional work and deserves another listen or two before you throw it back on the shelf.

"Human After All" is a concept album. The title is "Human After All", but the music couldn't be more robotic and cold. From my perspective, the album seems to be about a robot who is analyzing humans. What is their function, their purpose, their fascination with technology, their relationship with it, their relationships with one another, etc.

The tracks seem to each focus on a specific theme. One moment, it's about robots making music ("Robot Rock"), the next it's about our fascination with technology and all the things we do to it and it does to us ("Television Rules The Nation", "Technologic").

Daft Punk releases music only every 4 years or so, and making an album like this made the fans wonder what exactly happened to them. Did they rush release a demo album? Did they loose their minds? The answer is no. They have merely tried to make an artistic statement. Their first album was, as Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk put it, "making something out of nothing". The second album was an experiment into the world of emotion, I think, and really was their try at making a more "human" album. If anything, "Human After All" is an artistic statement. It may have alienated a few fans, but after giving the album a few listens, the music starts to grow on you. It really feels like a progression, despite the repetitive and cold nature of the album. The tracks seem to have gained popularity over the past year, especially when Daft Punk played a now legendary set at this year's Coachella festival.

Perhaps the album will make more sense when Daft Punk release their upcoming film, "Electroma", which centers on two robots (Bangalter and de Homem-Christo) in their quest to become human. In the meantime, let the album grow on you and you might just "get it".

Key tracks: "Human After All", "The Prime Time Of Your Life", "Robot Rock", "The Brainwasher", "Television Rules The Nation", "Technologic".

Expectations are a funny thing. It was expectation that made me buy this album as soon as it was in stores, and it was the same expectation that led me to feel -- at first -- a little disappointed.

Disappointment in music is nothing new, especially if you pay too much attention to critics. If an album's too much like the one before it, they're in a rut. Too different and they've lost their way. Daft Punk managed to turn a lot of critics on their heads with "Discovery", most that gave it middle of the road reviews have since changed their tune, thankfully addmitting that Homework Part 2 would have been too simple. But still many were and still are uncomfortable, mislabelling the fleshing out of their sound as going mainstream. I'm sure I would have tired of One More Time if I actually listened to the radio, but if you tune into Top 40 you get what you deserve.

When "Human After All" landed, you could cut the anticipation with a knife. A lot of the negative reviews I've seen branch off from a literal interpretation of the title before it even saw light. People everywhere were looking forward to a more vibrant, living, breathing Daft Punk. We might be treated to that in another few years, we might not. It's not important. Daft Punk did the classy thing and decided not to make another Discovery. They made new fans with that album, and that's great, I can't think of another act that deserved a bigger fan base more than them. When I first heard their latest, I couldn't find the heart. I fell into the trap of assuming they took the easy way out, and cooked some passable beats to get an album out.

But time makes fools of us all, and it didn't take too long for me to fall in love with "Human After All". Like Rollin' & Scratchin' and Short Circuit before them, the songs here have no immediate bells and whistles, and I won't lie; if you don't have patience for good music the slow burn of these songs will mean nothing. That said, this is definately the third album that Daft Punk needed to make. We've all heard the stories by now about how little time was spent crafting them, but that's expectations getting in the way again.

Daft Punk have gone from amazing underground act, to shining stars of French house, and back again; deeper, darker, more subtle. This album grew on me, but I can't promise everyone will feel it. What I do know is that if you want to hear some very nice ideas, with a distinct Daft Punk vibe, then this is an essential album.

Key tracks:

+ Robot Rock
+ The Prime Time Of Your Life
+ The Brainwasher

Some reviewers seem to see the title "Human After All" as an ironic statement, since this album contains lots of repetitions and could be described as very sequenced and robotic. I think the statement Daft Punk is trying to make with this album is deeper than that. This is a very emotional album. On this album they've picked out choice hooks that provoke a certain emotions in us, and looped them. An emotion, repeated over and over and over. Whatever you feel when you are told "Television rules the nation" Daft Punk apparently wants you to feel over and over for four minutes. And that is beautiful. Whatever you feel when you hear the song "Make Love" (The melody sounds very sad to me) Daft Punk wants you to feel that over and over. In many ways this album is about exploring the depth and meaning behind how something makes you feel. It encourages the mind. You're forced the weigh and analyze the feeling you get when you hear something looped on this album. In this respect, "Human After All" might mean that it is human to philosophize about things. The sculpture "The Thinker" comes to mind. Daft Punk wants us to think about the melodies and hooks and why they make us feel a certain way. "Technologic" is a stream of tons of "___ it" thrown at us, and the second we start to think about one, we are given another one and we can't remember the last one we were told. The statement they might be trying to make in this song is that it's all the same damn thing. It all doesn't mean anything, it all means the same thing, and what does that mean to us? The last track is "Emotion," where we are given simply the word "Emotion" to ponder on. A fitting closer to an album about emotion. How can we leave without pondering on the word for what we feel, and what we feel when we hear THAT word? This album is beautiful and brilliant.

This album was difficult for me to get into completely until I saw Daft Punk live on their "ALIVE" tour. They put on a full show, complete with a story and amazing lighting and props that are almost Vegas-like. The Daft Punk duo are dressed as robot aliens performing on stage inside a pyramid-like spaceship poking through a mesh of triangles. They start the show introducing themselves to Earth, by repeating the words "Human" and "Robot" in succession, until "Robot" takes over compelely, and they launch into "Robot Rock". They've set the theme that they are robot aliens from outer space trying to understand "humans". They progress through many of the songs on the album, plus a lot of their older material, much of it "mashed-up" together, and each of the songs has a context in this theme. The song "Technologic" is about how the robot aliens understand our consumer culture. "Steam Machine" about the robot aliens understand our "industrial culture", and of course "Television Rules the Nation" speaks for itself. They end the set with "Human After All", as a summary of the robots understanding the human, and perhaps desiring to be part of it. The encore set Picks up on repeating "human" over and over, and then adding the word "together" to it, to end on an ecumenical (in the secluar sense) note. Before the show, I had the same critiques of the album that people list here, but after you see the show, (with a very flexible mind), you will "get" the album, and love it as one of their classics. Please, people who've seen the "Alive" show, comment on this theme, and tell me if you agree, or if you have a different interpretation.

Well, I glad I purchased this album on a whim and avoided being tainted by any of the many negative reviews floating around. Very few seem to get Daft Punk's latest exploration of house. It is hard to take any of the major 'zines critics seriously when the song one claims as "trite satire of their own repetitive nature" the next claims as "the only worthy song on the album." It appears one man's garbage may very well be another man's treasure.

Really if you don't get this album, you probably don't get Daft Punk. If you only like Discovery, then you probably just like disco, not Daft Punk. If you only like Homework, you probably just like floor-pounding beats, not Daft Punk. From acid-house to disco-house to minimalist-house, Daft Punk won't play the same card twice.

Daft Punk is art, not really daft nor punk. Or maybe, both.

Dance music is created for dancing.
If it becomes to progressive it loses it purpose: for you to dance! A classic hip hop technique used by DJs is known as a breakbeat. A breakbeat is when a DJ takes the highest point of a song and loops it over and over. People would dance to it hours on end! Don't believe me? Go ask Grandmaster Flash if you see him. That right there, breakbeats, is the essence of dance music. It doesn't try to impress anybody with clever add-ons and here and theres and what-have-you. It just gives you a nice clean melody for you to jam on. That's all you need. This CD tells you a lot about Daft Punk. First of all, there are not many dance artists out there that are brave enough to do what they do, not many peeps can take so much criticism.
But Daft Punk, what THEY realize is what dance music is truly all about: dancing. The essence, like I said, of dancing is the melody. Apparently, after their experiences as dance artists so far, they finally got enlightened. They were probably sitting in the studio one day thinking of clever ways to make their songs. Then suddenly it hits them. They were enlightened.
They say that when you master an art you return to a state of simplicity. This CD right here is a true example of that. Dance music isn't like other music; it's meant for dancing. Blues is blues, rock is rock, rap is rap, dance... is dance. Read the title: DANCE. Now from the top: WHAT is the purpose of dance music?

Let's face it, it'd be hard to beat the fantastic work in Daft Punk Discovery. Yet, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo have done an excellent job with their new work "Human After All."

The music, while more mechanical in its melodies and rhythm, it's as if the performers are begging to learn what it is to be human. All the tracks are essentially the same, driven by technology and hardware, but all the while, there is that constant desire for life.

Unlike Discovery, the "story" in Human After All does not resolve, leaving the listener with the knowledge that humanity is forever being learned.

Well if this is the career suicide some reviewers are claiming here then why the hell can't most bands do an album like this. This is first class abrasive stuff. The fact that this was done in 6 weeks makes it all the better if you ask me. There's complete urgency in them that was missing in the too-slick Discovery. Sure Discovery had its moments and very good ones at that too but some of them got a little too 70's disco pop for my liking. While it may never take the place of Homework as a classic it is still worth a shot. It's just a pity people have a certain expectation added by the fact that music magazines hold sway over a lot of people. The best tracks on here in my opinion are Robot Rock, The Brainwasher and Steam Machine which I find is not to everyone's taste. Keep an open mind on this one, you never know what might happen if you give something a bit of time.

I had my doubts about this CD until I realized that it is an intentional joke. Its over the top and cheesy on purpose. Don't take it so seriously. Go back to Homework and listen to "Oh Yeah". Its a techno song making fun of other techno songs... on a techno record. Can't you see the humor in that? Its cynical.

Having a vocoder loop singing about "Emotion"? Having a vocal loop singing "Steam Machine" that sounds like steam? Robot vocals to "Human After All"? And the kicker is using "Technologic" to advertise for Apple. Are you really supposed to take this album seriously? No, but don't judge it on just a few listens, either.