Daft Punk - Human After All

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at any rate, i'll be playing tracks from this at kitsch tomorrow night if any oc peeps feel like coming out

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

*shrug*

I freely admit that I don't care for Daft Punk at all, but I gave it a shot and I gotta admit that half of this album could be used as the background music for Sunday night sports clip shows.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:07 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean like any instrumental house or techno?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean like any instrumental house or techno?

Well if you put it that way... But whatever, nothing pulling me in with this.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, one thing no one has touched upon (or if he or she did, I missed it) is that this seems to be the first short-form Daft Punk album yet. The first two were long-formers.. or at least spanned two LPs. I'm not sure if this will be a double-LP..(then again, I haven't been able to tell if we're dealing with 10 REALLY long songs, or not, but I doubt it).

I only mention this because the dissatisfaction may stem from the rather abridged nature of this album compared to the previous two, where you could always find enough to chew on.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:23 (twenty-one years ago)

my first thought is that while i love this album on first listen i think there will be a lot to get into as well.

the sequencing has struck me as being very good, also.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)

donut christ! new dido album, NOW!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

SLSK NEW ANNE MURRAY IMMEDIATELY!

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:37 (twenty-one years ago)

HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN AFTER ALL.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:37 (twenty-one years ago)

at least check out what people have been saying about it on ilm, dc! for your own good

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Somebody mentioned the vocodered humming (maybe on the other thread). That is my favorite part of the whole thing.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i like it, but i always like the things the ilm dance nazis hate.

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:45 (twenty-one years ago)

But the dance Nazis aren't Nazis! And they're not hating it here if they are the Nazis which I think they aren't. Hmm. "WHO MAKES THE NAZIS!" < / M E Smith >

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

also, i've missed andrew wk and i'm glad to see he's had a beautiful robot baby.

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

There is a real and beautiful expression of love in the title track.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

it still sweats a lot though.

(malfunctioning armpits)

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

also, i've missed andrew wk and i'm glad to see he's had a beautiful robot baby.

I like this statement.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Who are these "dance nazis"??

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm just having a bit of fun, let's be cool

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

That's what the nazis said!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I appreciate the journey they have made so far, from a revolutionary first album to managing very well the anxiety of the second album by successfully exploring their expressivity and as jakewithbrain mentionned "the short time spent on the album only works wonders on the music; it feels so fresh, spontaneous and fun in a equally stressed-out/mellow way": it's a concept that works when it comes at engaging with how they are percieved and what is expected from them, it feels like this stylistic exercice sort of addressed/reset the daft punk ultimate foundation.

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha Sébastien, are you trying to get in the definitive Human After All quote for the best of 2005 year end poll results (i.e. OTM).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I really feel this way, I wrote that in 2 minutes thank you :-)

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I know this is gonna suffer in crit polls, particularly on this board, for its early release date. Although Kanye didn't really have that problem so maybe (hopefully) I'm wrong.

But yeah I was very depressed and then I woke up today and someone told me Daft Punk had leaked...the best thing that could have happened, really!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(has "the anxiety of the second album" been addressed as a concept, on ILM?)

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

So i guess this is a prog-house album about a robot who finally discovers he has emotions and is somewhat 'human after all'?

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

couldn't they just call it short circuit?

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm so so so happy that this album didn't disappoint me.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys seem to be forgetting something: 9/11.

― mayahee, mayahoo, mayaha, mayahaha (deangulberry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.aleut4u.com/NEVER%20FORGET%20WTC%20T-SHIRT.jpg

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Where's the smurf?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i can't wait until 2 live jews do their parody album, humid after all.

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys seem to be forgetting something: 9/11.

I'll ask again here, is this in reference to my comments on the Simon Reynolds thread?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Chicago house, NIN comparisons both OTM, and not just on Steam Machine. Make love is my favorite, but it's also the one the most nudges me in the direction of the crippled leak conspiracy theorists.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I gave the album a full uninterrupted listen... and basically:

If Homework sounded like a group that had 10 weeks to write, record, and finalize an album, and if Discovery sounded like a group that had 10 months to write, record, and finalize an album, Human After All sounds like a group that had 10 DAYS to write, record, and finalize an album.

In other words: "eh. decided to do a bunt instead of a glam slam I see."

It also sounds like Daft Punk somehow immersed themselves into a lot of older stoner/classic rock before they went into this project. Also, did no one else note the "The Brainwasher"/Sabbath "Iron Man" parallel? These aren't criticisms.. just musings and observations.

Most strikingly, with the exception of "Robot Rock" and "Technologic" (and I never thought I'd be making this exception for "Robot Rock"), this is a rather dance-less album. A lot of humming, bass, and pulsing, and dark vocoding, but nothing that matches the previous two albums as a source of providing dance floor anthems. Again, not necessarily a criticism, just an observation.

I don't see the New Beat/industrial comparisons though. "The Brainwasher" sounds dark, indeed, but at least the former genre implies some sort of beat and drive, and this song scurries and plods along very creepily, but doesn't, you know, hit it.

The most disappointing elements are the sameyness in the heavily phased low frequency square wave synths used in almost every song, and that these tracks were done live. That last part is purely an opinion.. sure, it's cool that Human After All sounds like the most reproduceable album live and all (rockists celebrate!), but I was hoping for something that would elevate even higher than Discovery for the followup, like Nirvana or something.. (yup, I was stung by high expectations, and I admit it.)

I can already smell the ending sentence paraphrased in EVERY goddamned review that's going to slag this album in the next month:

"Daft Punk has destroyed the dream that Discovery promised, proving they are, indeed, Human After All -- if only for the better"

That said, this isn't a bad album in the larger scope of things. Just bad for Daft Punk.

But I'll also say that I bet the A-Frames' Black Forest album is going to stimulate the "robot rock" vibe, albeit in a much different way, far more effectively than this album seems to (try to) do.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

come on Spencer admit the only reason you like the title track is because of the double-note guitar riff being a complete rip-off of COMMON PEOPLE ;)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

dc, yr nuts.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd be a good boy and expound further but I have to run :-)

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost.
Nope, there is actual love in the humming. I can feel it!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

very brave of you, djddrake.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i think donut's criticism is the most negative so far (and by far!)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Having heard both, Donut, I must disagree. The A-Frames album is enjoyable enough but the Daft Punk is what I'm actually replaying a lot.

Also, I'm noting this:

I was hoping for something that would elevate even higher than Discovery for the followup, like Nirvana or something.. (yup, I was stung by high expectations, and I admit it.)

I sorta find this an interesting conflation -- namely, a hint that the album needed to be even more, for lack of a better phrase, detailed and/or grandiose than before in order to succeed. Am I however reading that wrong? It seems like a strange expectation to place on a band -- heck, any band.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

HAHAHAHAHAHA...

Kevin Shields to thread.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to agree with donut on that point. While this album may be one of the best that will be released this year, it is in no way another Discovery, not even close.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Nice try, Donut, but no dice. Whatever I felt for hoping for a follow-up to Loveless didn't involve an expectation for what the detail of sound should be.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

S Chow, I don't think it's quite as good, but I think it's easily in the same ballpark.

I really do have to go now...laterz

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually I'm in the camp that feels Discovery sorta folds after five songs -- great songs, admittedly. This actually feels like a more complete experience.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i find i get more pleasure out of 'Make Love' if i imagine Felix Da Housecat crooning "MY LIFE IS MUSIC AND MUSIC IS MY LIFE, SWEET SOUNDS TO HELP YOU TAKE FLIGHT" (and the rest of the lyrics from that track he did) over it

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I didn't expect specific details in Human After All, I was just hoping that they'd at least TRY as hard as they did on Homework at least, maybe as much Discovery. Subconsciously, I was hoping it would tbe album that would surpass Discovery true.

Maybe Daft Punk decided to just nip that expectation in the bud, instead of following Axl Roses' and Kevin Shields' retreat into hermitdom... probably a wiser move than nothing at all.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

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