Disco de Daft Punk: “Human After All”

"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".

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.

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.

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.

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.