Rocktrospectiva: The Dark And Flamboyant "Human After All" Turns 20

Released on 14 March 2005, "Human After All" was Daft Punk third studio album, it was inspired by disco and garage house and produced over two years, Human After All was more minimalistic and improvisational with heavier guitars and electronics, and was produced in six weeks. The album spawned three singles "Robot Rock", "Technologic", "Human After All", & "The Prime Time Of Your Life". Certain singles, in particular "Robot Rock" and "Technologic", charted in several countries, while "Human After All" charted in France. Human After All reached number one on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

Human After All received mixed reviews from critics, who were wary of its minimalistic, repetitive nature and considered the record inferior to Daft Punk's previous works. However, it did receive some favorable notices for the darker, experimental tone—unique from the duo's other records—and the moodier, more menacing direction.

For Human After All, Daft Punk wanted to "do the opposite" of their previous album, Discovery (2001). During the promotion of Discovery, the Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter specifically mentioned that "Maybe our next LP might be very hard -- as long as there is the surprise." Whereas Discovery contains many samples, Human After All only uses one. Bangalter compared the deliberately unpolished quality to "a stone that's unworked". It was created primarily with two guitars, two drum machines, a vocoder and an eight-track machine. They used an inexpensive DigiTech synth wah-wah pedal extensively throughout the record.

This album was about fear and paranoia, and was not intended to "make you feel good". He also stated that it and the 2006 film Daft Punk's Electroma were "extremely tormented and sad and terrifying looks at technology, but there can be some beauty and emoting from it". He acknowledged the perceived mechanical quality of the record, but felt that it expressed "the dance between humanity and technology".

The repetitive use of loops it was "more spontaneous and direct" than Daft Punk's previous albums, the first track, "Human After All", as "deceptively cheerful-sounding", with "back-and-forth" staccato guitar. "The Prime Time of Your Life" pairs a "gnarled, percussive low-end melody" with processed vocals. "Robot Rock" uses a sample of the main melody of the 1980 Breakwater song "Release the Beast", with "amped-up" funk riffs. "Steam Machine" and "The Brainwasher" are "crunchy, biting" industrial tracks and "Make Love" is "mellow" neo soul. "Technologic" is a "guitar-heavy" track, with a monotonous pitch-shifted voice intoning instructions such as "buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail, upgrade it". For the final song "Emotion", it was observed that despite the title word repeating throughout its duration, the singing voice itself lacks emotive expression.

The critics were mixed who were wary of its minimalistic, repetitive nature and considered the record inferior to Daft Punk's previous works. However, it did receive some favorable notices for the darker, experimental tone—unique from the duo's other records—and the moodier, more menacing direction. That was because it felt that it lacked the "fun" of Daft Punk's previous work.  In other words, a shining example of pop songcraft in the 21st century.

 

Human After All Track List: 

 

1. Human After All

2. The Prime Time Of Your Life

3. Robot Rock

4. Steam Machine

5. Make Love

6. The Brainwasher

7. On/Off

8. Television Rules The Nation

9. Technologic

10. Emotion