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Stylus Magazine

Portraying the state of pop as a series of predictable formulae long since exhausted by corporate superstructure, Human After All more than lives up to its name, rendering a metaphor for failure on the grandest yet simultaneously most personal of terms.

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Uncut

It has everything you've come to expect from a Daft Punk album--innovation, cracking tunes, a palpable sense of its own absurdity--but this time the whole shebang's cranked up to 11. [Apr 2005, p.99]

Mojo

Some of it is tough and unforgiving... and some is pure pop plastique. [Apr 2005, p.89]

Alternative Press

Not as overtly catchy (or cheesy) as Discovery, Human After All nonetheless is a hilariously cold and mechanical work that makes Kraftwerk sound like Curtis Mayfield. [May 2005, p.138]

PopMatters

The end result on Human is structurally and technically impressive, though at times aesthetically more curious than intriguing.

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Magnet

The album's most human aspect is its contradictory nature, an ultimate lack of emotion that make the exhilarating Homework and the sentimental Discovery so accessible. [#67, p.90]

New Musical Express

There's a squelchy warmth at the heart of 'Human After All' that's been well masked since their arrival. [19 Mar 2005, p.59]

Drowned In Sound

It's not a massive progression from their debut, and it appears that as the rest of the world has finally caught up with them, the duo from space appear to be having problems going forward.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

On the whole, Human sounds guided by instructions as much as inspiration.

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ShakingThrough.net

It’s official: The robots have won.

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Paste Magazine

Thematically, it's stale and preachy, but few capture mechanized emotion like Daft Punk. [Apr/May 2005, p.142]

All Music Guide

Human After All ends up being just not-bad (a first for Daft Punk); that may be hard to accept for fans that demand nothing less than brilliance from them, but just because it isn't an instant classic doesn't mean that it's totally unworthy, either.

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No Ripcord

Inexplicably, predictably, Daft Punk have become the first band to produce a retro post-parody of their own work.

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Blender

Feels desultory and numb, verging on autistic. [Apr 2005, p.116]

Entertainment Weekly

Dominated by overly repetitive, lumbering throwaways. [18 Mar 2005, p.68]

Dot Music

With “Human After All” the pair are running both on the spot and out of ideas. In making an album comprised of nothing but their stylistic tics – the over-used Vocoder/pitch bender, the monstrously compressed acid squelches, the crunchy, rock guitar motifs – Daft Punk are like a celebrity chef who serves up nothing but his signature dish. Soon, you’ll stop eating in his restaurant.

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Rolling Stone

Daft Punk may have become the victim of their own animatronic satire.

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Pitchfork

Where the weight of expectation and precedence get to have a say, this feels like not just a failure, but a heartbreaker.

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cokemachineglow

Whether or not Human After All - which of course, has not a single purely human voice in its midst - is supposed to be some great stroke of pop irony or self-reflexive wink is irrelevant. Boring, empty music that thinks it’s making a point is condescending and pedantic.

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Spin

Where 2001's Discovery coyly gene-spliced cock rock and New York garage, Human merely cuts and pastes. [Apr 2005, p.105]

Q Magazine

The robots were more fun. [Apr 2005, p.118]

Playlouder

Too much of it is straightforward four-to-the-floor anodynity, and a number of tracks run out of ideas almost immediately, explore touchstones they've caressed more inspiringly before or, worse, do both.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Daft Punk have released an album so bland and repetitive that it may actually call into question all their past glory. It doesn't seem fathomable, but alas, the proof is seemingly inscribed in each note.

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Urb

It's hard to explain the mindless metal riffing that weighs down this completely disappointing album. [May 2005, p.84]

Village Voice

Human After All is determinedly monochromatic aurally, compositionally, and mood-wise. Gosh, they really are robots--the music is flat, barely inflected, sitting there like a vending machine waiting patiently for your quarters.

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Under The Radar

The snarky, ironic title only seems to poke fun at what is Daft Punk's most programmed and artificial album to date, and this is just a part of what feels like an all in-joke record. [#9]

The Guardian

Apparently knocked off in just six weeks, Daft Punk's third album sounds like it took six days. Six short days. With long lunches.

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Billboard

It doesn't always make for an enjoyable listening experience, on or off the dancefloor.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 84 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Evan gave it a9:
It's the sound of genius. Try listening to it again!

Joe M gave it a6:
Whether it's Bangalter's Roule imprint or De-Homem Christo's Crydamoure, Daft Punk's best, most rocking work has been generally based on a single gorgeous hook, amped & eq'ed to the max and repeated to punk-rock levels of aural devastation. Unfortunately in this case, with the noble exceptions of the title track, Prime Time, Robot Rock and Television well, the hooks just ain't all that hot. Calm before the storm hopefully.

Saver C. gave it a9:
under s timated

GCB gave it a7:
To be honest when I first heard this album I thought that the critics had got terribly wrong but after about 6/7 listens the repetitiveness just started doing my head in. There are some good moments on here and in Robot Rock a genuine Daft Punk classic, but most of the song’s sound half-finished. Still its not nearly as bad as some people make out.

Stafford gave it a10:
This album is a bit of shameful point for me. Rarely do I listen to reviewers, but for some reason or another I did with this one. I think it was the universal critial panning of the album that let me to ignore it for so long. For almost a year after it was released I went merrily on my way, driving around late at night with "Discovery" still cemented into my CD player. By some odd stroke of fate though, this began wriggling its way into my life track by track. First one track, then two, and once I was up to three tracks that I really found amazing, I asked myself what the reviewers were blabbering about. So I began listening to it in its entirety. Since then the album has creeped its way into my subconcious. I'll find myself listening to something else and then, without even thinking change it to "Human After All." Certain facets of all those negative reviews are true. It is simpler and darker than "Discovery." But almost all of the negative statements made by the reviewers have ultimately become why I completely have become obsessed with this album. There are few albums in the recent past that I find myself thinking about the day, wishing I was listeing to it. It works on both a "headphone" level as well as purely in the background. I honestly can't put into words why this album has taken a hold of me as it has. But if you go into this not expecting "Discovery Deux" it becomes an extremely addictive and ultimately rewarding album. Whereas "Discovery" was the consolidation of 30 years of dance music into one cohesive brilliant statement, "Human After All" is future music. It's uncomprimising and like nothing you've really heard before. Brilliant in both its simplicity and complexity, the album confounds in the best of ways and presents plac ein music where computers begin to have emotion.

Jack C gave it a0:
Augh, it's terrible. Daft Punk set a pretty high standard with their previous two albums... and then to be treated to plodding, unmelodic messes like Technologic, Prime Time of Your Life, and Television Rules The Nation... I feel like Daft Punk is laughing at me and everyone else who bought this record. Every song is just a repetitive mess that I could have put together in 3 minutes with Protools, and feels especially shoddy given the fact that Daft Punk had years to work on this thing. Instead, they spent 6 weeks on it... and it shows.

d c gave it a3:
i have heard friends who never really bothered too much with daft punk before say they think this is a fun album. i can aalmost see what they mean, repetitive, ironic kind of vocador stuff, some beats, one killer riff in robot rock. but if you were a homework fanatic and admirer of discovery like many are (were?) - this is a crashing dissapointment, i agree with PFork - a heartbreaker. it actually feels like being robbed buying this - PIECE OF S**T. wankers

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