- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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On the whole, Human sounds guided by instructions as much as inspiration.
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It’s official: The robots have won.
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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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Paste MagazineThematically, it's stale and preachy, but few capture mechanized emotion like Daft Punk. [Apr/May 2005, p.142]
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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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Entertainment WeeklyDominated by overly repetitive, lumbering throwaways. [18 Mar 2005, p.68]
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BlenderFeels desultory and numb, verging on autistic. [Apr 2005, p.116]
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Daft Punk may have become the victim of their own animatronic satire.
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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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Inexplicably, predictably, Daft Punk have become the first band to produce a retro post-parody of their own work.
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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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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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SpinWhere 2001's Discovery coyly gene-spliced cock rock and New York garage, Human merely cuts and pastes. [Apr 2005, p.105]
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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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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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Q MagazineThe robots were more fun. [Apr 2005, p.118]
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UrbIt's hard to explain the mindless metal riffing that weighs down this completely disappointing album. [May 2005, p.84]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 180 out of 255
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Mixed: 58 out of 255
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Negative: 17 out of 255
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StaffordFeb 21, 2007
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Dec 14, 2019This is my favorite album of Daft Punk so far. Criminally underrated. I think it's their most ambitious album to date.
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Dec 15, 2016