moonwalker84's Full Review: Human After All by Daft Punk
Human After All is a bizarro study in minimalism with some terrific moments, and it must've been a gutsy decision to release. That said, it's a total rush job that never reaches it's potential. None of the material here is properly fleshed out - all of the 9 tracks sound like rough demos that would've evolved into stellar tracks had they been given the time and space to mature. This is probably because the whole album was recorded in six weeks.
What are Daft Punk trying to say on this album? Many self-conflicting and insubstantial messages are delivered throughout. Powerfully, they open the album by openly declaring their re-humanity. We are human after all, flesh uncovered after all. But the album sounds more stiff and electronic than ever, they're still wearing the robot suits in the videos, and the lead single is called Robot Rock. Discovery was much more human than this.
Apparently this is also a concept album about how television is destroying society by turning us into robots. But isn't that a bit of an old-hat idea? And what do they have to back this up? There are very few vocals throughout Human After All, often a simple repeated chant. The Brainwasher, for example, is ironically the most unconvincing song of the set. A voice repeatedly declares "I am the Brainwashaaa!" over unremarkable doof-doof rave beats. Where's Romanthony when you need him?
Robot Rock is the single, and it's f**king awesome. Essentially, it's the one riff over and over. But it's such an amazing headbanger of a riff that it doesn't matter. I hated this song at first but the damn thing really grew on me. I even learnt to play it on piano with an expressionless face while making stiff robot motions. And imagine what new heights of Daft Punky greatness this could've reached if they added proper vocals, a bridge, verses... *drools*.
Television Rules The Nation is the essence of what's wrong with this album. It's too inconsistent and repetitive, it makes a big statement without backing it up with anything substantial, and it tries to be minimalist but in the end sounds more like an unfinished demo of a fully-fleshed song. Prime Time of Your Life is sorta the same thing, but it's just so weird and arrogant that it's kinda cool. Prime time of your life, now, live, the prime time of your life. Oh, and Steam Machine is an industrial funk that sounds like Kraftwerk on acid.
Make Love is a magic moment right in the middle of the album. A heavenly piano sequence lives under wispy, bubbly clouds of electronic noise, while in the background a human, yet robotic voice sleepily sings "Make love, make love, make love...". It sounds like the music you would play to get humans to breed in captivity.
I call this a 9-track album, but there's ten if you count On/Off the rather pointless :19 segue with someone flicking through TV stations and then deciding to turn it off. Come on, Daft Punk. Even Janet Jackson did that one on Rhythm Nation 1814.
Technologic is a really annoying song that's also the second single. A chipmunk voice lists a bunch of things you can do with modern technology. This is all very nice, but what's the point? Emotion is the finale, and it's ironically the most robotic, soulless thing you'll ever hear.
Just a few reviews back I was saying it was time for Daft Punk to move on from Discovery, deliver a new album, and discover new sounds. And I guess they did. In any case, it's always good to see experimentation. Every truly great artist should have at least one album that makes the public go "WTF?".
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