Daft Punk - Human After All

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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)

the best tracks on HAA are absolutely as good as the harder Dance tracks on Discovery

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

It's really just a "too little too late" thing for me with this album. I'm sure the album will grow on me a little, but there just doesn't seem to be as much hard work on this record as the previous two. They don't HAVE to work hard for each album, but I think all of people expected that, including myself.

I think the wiser move would have been to pair down this album into a single two-track AA single.. "Robot Rock"/"Technologic"... (granted, the two really dancey tracks)

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

But I wanted more "Digital Love" (obviously, it's one of my 3 favorite songs of all time) and more "Face to Face" and more "Voyager" - oh never mind, I'm just going to list them all...

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

hell no, 'Robot rock' is my least favourite track on this bitch!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:59 (twenty-one years ago)

every track seems to make me think of a different act or other track. when i hear 'Television Rules The Nation' i think of Can. i just wish they hadn't used that 'vomiting robot frog' sound on EVERY track!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I still find "Technologic" a horrible exerice in self-parody.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

They don't HAVE to work hard for each album, but I think all of people expected that, including myself.

Eh, but you could say that about any number of people, the idea of fan expectation vs. whatever the hell the musicians felt like doing. Not all, mind you, which calls to mind an interesting question of what musicians do things you mentally feel create a comfort zone for you that you don't need more of in the way of 'change' versus those you invest some sorta sense of 'progress' from -- when it's more likely that you'll get the latter quality out of nowhere or from an unexpected source instead of whoever or whatever you've burdened your expectations with.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

It's funny how the two songs most people hate here are the only two tracks I'll actually replay! ("Robot Rock" and "Technologic")

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, very good points, indeed. However, I'm going to have to sit out the next decade and hear the next two Daft Punk albums (if they will exist by then), and then look back at Human After All and reappreciate it in that context.

No doubt! I've been disappointed by albums only to come back to them later and discover their good points after hearing the artist(s)' subsequent work, whether that work was better or worse.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Did the "vomiting robot frog" make his first appearance at the end of New Order's "Perfect Kiss"???

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

But this album still sounds, to me, like a band that decided to bunt, fearing that everyone expected the greatest grand slam of them all. Sure, it's "good for the fans and builds character" and all that. But keep in mind, I JUST heard this now, and just experience the initial downer. I doubt I'll feel more negative than I feel now.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

What Does

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

~~God~~Harvell Say?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

You won't find it posted here.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, hstencil was totally OTM about the Trans Am comment.. this is about as exciting (read: kinda dull with exceptions) as a Trans Am album.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

OOH SNAP

(XPOST)

― mayahee, mayahoo, mayaha, mayahaha (deangulberry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, damn, I wanna hear the FAKE Human After All now.

*setup for anti-U.S.E. joke incoming in 20... 19... 18... *

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

actually im quite interested to hear what ronan thinks of this.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! What good music!

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, all that said, it is really excellent. A 9 if Discovery is an 11.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure I understand any insistence that a band (or artist) shouldn't have to work hard to produce something. I mean, the effort one invests or the difficulty one has honing or articulating an idea doesn't necessarily have to involve painstaking protools edits or geeked out patch tweaking-- but I do think that the act of creation should involve some challenge. Granted, if you assess it on the basis that working within a limited amount of time is enough of a challenge to warrant attention being paid to it, then I could see how we could disagree on this point. I think it's a bit silly though to make a piece of art (or music or whatever) with those kinds of restrictions if the art (or music or whatever) isn't at least a bit more conceptual or doesn't demand those strictures.

In my opinion the heavily loop oriented nature of the music actually is a standin for songcraft. When I hear these songs I hear what they might have done had they spent more time on them. I'm actually left wondering if they know they can trade in on their name for at least one album to buy them time making an album they might have been more likely to make (given their trajectory).

I say this as a person who has spent a lot of time making electronic music (lately mostly dancey things), and it might sound a bit pretentious... but i could have made this album. I never would have, because at the end of the day it does sound like Daft Punk, but it has no magic. Their machines sound a bit emptier than they used to, a little less haunted.

The rock costumes they're working seem like touchstones meant to put the listener in a place that the music couldn't have ever put them into on its own. A few too many signposts telling you where to go... and that somewhere doesn't seem like some fantastic place that they invented like the previous two albums did.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"daft punk without the magic" = otm

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree. Although Daft Punk resting on their laurels still = very good.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel they have at least another album in them, and now they have even more freedom to make it.

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

If I had made an album like this, I would be jolly pleased with myself.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"Human After All" - This is so much better than "Robot Rock" it isn't funny. I don't see how this track isn't dancy!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I already like this one song more than every song on Discovery.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:40 (twenty-one years ago)

again, i think this is great but AGAIN, I don't think this is the final cut.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Prime Time Of Your Life" - Is this the most annoying beginning to a song ever recorded? It's possible; for fuck's sake get to the track and stop fucking around with the sequencer! Oh, there it goes... um, did they forget to turn up the drum track on this? Oh no, I see, they just decided to fuck around in an irritating manner for half the song. I get it now.

I do like the droney bit. Oh wait, it's speeding up! Awesome! Oh, but there's less than a minute left; what a butcher of an edit!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"Robot Rock" - Annoying. I don't like the patch on that synth riff, otherwise I think I would like this a lot. It sounds like a boring Fatboy Slim castoff to me.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think they're using a sequencer on "Prime Time".. sounds all live to me.. all that background noise sounds like a lot of swaggering about the studio hitting mic stands and what not, but just put through a lot of effects.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Steam Machine" - This is dirty! Total robot sex music! I hear a sex offender sneaking up behind a doe-eyed blonde with a lead pipe and a rubber maid outfit lurking in this song; I hope a remixer brings him out into the open and makes him jig.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

"Make Love" - Aw, sweet. This should have been called "Hold Hands And Snuggle".

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Your experiences of this album are so vanilla!

xpost

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:58 (twenty-one years ago)

If I had made an album like this, I would be jolly pleased with myself.

Damning with faint praise!!! I think it's an amazing accomplishment, and while I'm not so down on Discovery as Ned is, I think he's right that this is a more complete experience (or whatever his wording was).

As for the stuff "firstworldman" said - I think it comes off as (sorry) rockism.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Damning with faint praise!!!

You don't know me, fool!

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:03 (twenty-one years ago)

As for the stuff "firstworldman" said - I think it comes off as (sorry) rockism.

?????

Elaborate, please?

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:04 (twenty-one years ago)

actually, forget I asked. Please don't elaborate.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Brainwasher" - CHANNEL X IS BACK! So far this is easily my favorite! It's also very ironic considering the new beat thread that started earlier today.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure I understand any insistence that a band (or artist) shouldn't have to work hard to produce something

Do you need me to expound further?

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:07 (twenty-one years ago)

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