• Record Label: Virgin
  • Release Date: Mar 15, 2005
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 255 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 17 out of 255

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  1. JonL
    Mar 19, 2005
    5
    Homework, may the best dance record put out to date. It's simple raw messed up samples served up over unpolished drum machines. Daft Punk brought the D.I.Y. ethics of punk to dance music. On Discovery they reinvented themselves and made one of the best sounding dance records. Humans finds Daft wavering in between these two albums, and after two listens I can't help but feel Homework, may the best dance record put out to date. It's simple raw messed up samples served up over unpolished drum machines. Daft Punk brought the D.I.Y. ethics of punk to dance music. On Discovery they reinvented themselves and made one of the best sounding dance records. Humans finds Daft wavering in between these two albums, and after two listens I can't help but feel dissapointed in both the originality and production of the record. While I appreciate the return to the more raw approach of homework, they just don't seem to have put forth the effort needed to compete with their previous releases. I need the crazy crazy inventive noises that made them so accessible, even to lovers of punk music. Hopefully they release something soon, and for gods sake if you're going to have a link to your website when you put your disc in the computer. The least you can do is update it with something other than a site that is selling dolls from Daft Punk videos. Expand
  2. Oct 8, 2011
    4
    Daft Punk is known for their hybrid of organic samples and high edge house music, their first two albums leaving catchy and beautiful songs. While Human After All's titular track is a great opener, the rest of the album just can't follow suit. Nearly everything is just a mirror of its first fifteen seconds. It's unfortunate just how repetitive it gets, and actually a little annoying. ThisDaft Punk is known for their hybrid of organic samples and high edge house music, their first two albums leaving catchy and beautiful songs. While Human After All's titular track is a great opener, the rest of the album just can't follow suit. Nearly everything is just a mirror of its first fifteen seconds. It's unfortunate just how repetitive it gets, and actually a little annoying. This is especially the case for tracks like "Robot Rock", "Technologic" and "Brainwasher". Then there are even stranger "songs" like "On/Off', a prelude to "Prime Time of Your Life" and worse, "Emotion", which is basically just a rendition of technologic with other sounds from the album. It's very disappointing, considering the duo's previous successes. Collapse
  3. Apr 9, 2012
    6
    I love Daft Punk and I consider Discovery and Alive 2007 to be among my favorite musical works. However, it is painfully obvious that they didn't care about how this album turned out. Dull, repetitive, and boring would be the best words to describe this 'album.'

    I only give a 6/10 because DP redeemed themselves and this album by remixing it with Alive 2007.
  4. Oct 3, 2013
    5
    Despite the clear goal of the album, it fails to hit the same chord Homework and Discovery were able to do. Overly repetitive, overly-sampling on Robot Rock (Breakwater-Release The Beast), and a rather boring album. The album may be a hit at dance clubs, but listening to this by yourself will bore you.
  5. Jun 5, 2016
    5
    This album is kinda meh. Because the music is kinda a bit weird. But songs like "Human After All" and "Digital Love" are only the best ones in my opinion. That's all I really got to say about it.
  6. marcusr
    Mar 20, 2005
    4
    Blah. Without the creativity, groove or attention to detail of any of the previous records, this album manages to feel depressing and restless at the same time.
  7. Decepticon_Pom
    Apr 27, 2005
    4
    How the mighty have fallen...
  8. kennyM
    Feb 11, 2006
    4
    the number of good songs on this album - robot rock, steam machine, television rules the nation and technologig. the rest are monotonus and repetative to the point of nausia, the brainwasher in particular. male love makes me want to throw up. extremely disappointed.
  9. Jonathan
    Mar 14, 2005
    6
    To be fair. How what do you do to top Discovery? Well not this. The moment I bought Discovery and found the Daft Punk Club Card, logged in, and then relized they wanted money for the extra tracks. After that I got the feeling that something seemed wrong about their intentions. With the release of their third album my questions have been answered. Daft Punk, is in it for the money. This To be fair. How what do you do to top Discovery? Well not this. The moment I bought Discovery and found the Daft Punk Club Card, logged in, and then relized they wanted money for the extra tracks. After that I got the feeling that something seemed wrong about their intentions. With the release of their third album my questions have been answered. Daft Punk, is in it for the money. This album seems to shout "We Can put out anything and You people will pay us for it". There are 10 second bits and pieces of the album that rock. But when those 10 seconds are stretched into 4minutes, you lose interest. However, if you go back and listen to Homework, it is almost as repetitive and very simple in nature. It was however ahead of its time, so that made it fresh. Maybe Daft Punk needs to question their reason for making music. Whatever, they need to go back to the drawing board, do their Homework, and makes some Discovery-ies, for their next project. Give the fans what they expect. Maybe we expect too much? We are all Human After All. Peace Expand
  10. ZachH
    Mar 14, 2005
    5
    It's true that it is a lot like Homework was. A very disappointing record that lacks a great deal of distinguishing content.
  11. joser
    Mar 14, 2005
    5
    Ao terceiro disco um passo em falso. Fraco.
  12. JerradH
    Mar 15, 2005
    4
    I'm really disappointed from this album. After the great creative inspiration and infusion of nice melodies in Discovery, they've gone back to the "lets make 11 different 10 second snippets of music on an Atari 2600 and repeat them until everyone barfs" style. Homework wasn't even this drab.
  13. AlexB.
    Mar 16, 2005
    6
    Like Jonathan said, how can Discovery be topped? With lots of hard work probably. Anyways, I sure know six weeks isn't sufficient enough to come up with a amazing follow-up, especially after four years of not releasing new material (Daft Club doesn't count). I'm huge fan of Daft Punk, following them since I first saw the video to "One More Time" and buying Discovery and Like Jonathan said, how can Discovery be topped? With lots of hard work probably. Anyways, I sure know six weeks isn't sufficient enough to come up with a amazing follow-up, especially after four years of not releasing new material (Daft Club doesn't count). I'm huge fan of Daft Punk, following them since I first saw the video to "One More Time" and buying Discovery and later Homework, but this is slightly disappointing. Is the music horrible? Not exactly, but knowing that the guys could do a hell of lot better, it struck me with a bitter taste. I did like the song "Robot Rock," even though most people complain about that one. Anyways, if you plan to get into Daft Punk, start with either Homework or Discovery first and then approach this one as a admirable failure. Expand
  14. DavidA
    Mar 18, 2005
    6
    Personally, I've always preferred Homework to Discovery. I like Acid House, and I like hypnotic, repetitive grooves, when they are done well. Trading the 303 for guitars is a gamble, and there are both excellent bangers and disastrous failures on this latest effort. I still really like "Robot Rock". The problem with fans who got into DP solely with Discovery is that Discovery was Personally, I've always preferred Homework to Discovery. I like Acid House, and I like hypnotic, repetitive grooves, when they are done well. Trading the 303 for guitars is a gamble, and there are both excellent bangers and disastrous failures on this latest effort. I still really like "Robot Rock". The problem with fans who got into DP solely with Discovery is that Discovery was much more a pop record than any other DP output. In the end, Human After All is more a house record than a pop record, and while it's disappointing in parts, and the first fully fallible album of their career, it doesn't deserve the panning it's been receiving. Expand
  15. jonathank
    Mar 22, 2005
    6
    A bit disapointed really with this latest outlet. My first impression of `human after all` was: `what have daft punk been doing for 4 years, having given such potential for success?`. Funny enough the title HAA gives an answer to a northern english girl who met me on holiday in rhodes, and made me listen to the lyrics of `smthing about us`, introducing me to Discovery, a realy excesive A bit disapointed really with this latest outlet. My first impression of `human after all` was: `what have daft punk been doing for 4 years, having given such potential for success?`. Funny enough the title HAA gives an answer to a northern english girl who met me on holiday in rhodes, and made me listen to the lyrics of `smthing about us`, introducing me to Discovery, a realy excesive but phat dance album. Favourite tracks (HAA): human after all, make love, steam machine. A very unique innovative band overall. Expand
  16. akbarshabooboo
    Mar 23, 2005
    4
    This is a far cry from the jaw-dropping beats of 1997's 'Homework'.. the beats are mostly good, but once they are established, there is very little variation, and most songs will quickly bore the crap out of you because of this repetitiveness.
  17. jonz
    Mar 26, 2005
    4
    When I first heard the leak of this album I thought it was a joke. Daft Punk are known to play games with their audience, and the album was just really sort of crappy, especially by Daft Punk standards. The day the album was released in stores I went out and got it, and sure enough, there was no joke, and they actually released this peice of crap album.
  18. JoeM
    Jul 10, 2007
    6
    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 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. Expand
  19. Aug 7, 2013
    5
    You don’t have to agree on this, but to me, Daft Punk’s Discovery is the best album that has ever been made in the genre of electronic music. I didn’t expect the album’s follow-up to be just as good as the aforementioned 2001 masterpiece, however, Human After All was really a huge disappointment. The French duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel De Homem-Christo are definitely two of the mostYou don’t have to agree on this, but to me, Daft Punk’s Discovery is the best album that has ever been made in the genre of electronic music. I didn’t expect the album’s follow-up to be just as good as the aforementioned 2001 masterpiece, however, Human After All was really a huge disappointment. The French duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel De Homem-Christo are definitely two of the most gifted men in electronic music and proved it with practically every one of the 14 songs on Discovery which made all reasonable listeners want to hear more. But with this release, every reasonable listener that isn’t the absolute Daft Punk fan boy, should have enough after the dreary ten songs. Why is that? Shouldn’t a period of four years between those two albums have given them even more time to compose intelligent and dulcet house music? No, because the 4-year interval wasn’t spend with making music Daft Punk was inert most of it. Not more than 2 freaking weeks were dispensed on the production of Human After All and as with most albums that are made in such a short spell, the audience can notice that very clearly. Almost all of the album’s songs are a short concept repeated with minor variations over the course of at least four minutes. Lyrics are sparse and intelligent lyrics even sparser, but they probably thought that Technologic, one of the four songs released as a single, would compensate that with what are likely more words than all other Daft Punk songs combined. A robot voice (not the only song to use that) repeats short phrases associated with working/production of something so often that you could incur the tonal version of an epileptic seizure. The album’s general idea that technology is something that humans should be way more skeptical about sounds interesting and indeed is in some of the songs, yet the composers don’t seem that interested in this thematic which leads us, the listeners, to the same feeling. The best parts about all of the songs are the beats, a subject in which Daft Punk has always been elusively good, and they admittedly impressed me the first time I head them. Songs like Robot Rock, The Brainwasher, or the album’s best, Make Love, are prone to multiple listens only because of the beats of course, since those songs are more or less instrumental. If this album were the debut of the duo, I wouldn’t be as critical about it, but if you take a look at all of Daft Punk’s previous work, it’s just an unfulfilling record: Too long, too simple, too meaningless. Expand
  20. Feb 7, 2014
    6
    In all its metallic, cold, crunchiness, Human After All, which was considered to be one of the most anticipated, yet disappointing albums of 2005 and in the EDM community overall, there's meaning -- or should I say purpose -- to be found here. Now it's almost been a decade since its release, and Daft Punk have since produced for the 2010 Walt Disney film Tron: Legacy and made one of theIn all its metallic, cold, crunchiness, Human After All, which was considered to be one of the most anticipated, yet disappointing albums of 2005 and in the EDM community overall, there's meaning -- or should I say purpose -- to be found here. Now it's almost been a decade since its release, and Daft Punk have since produced for the 2010 Walt Disney film Tron: Legacy and made one of the most memorable, critically acclaimed of 2010s thus far, Random Access Memories. And maybe because of that, time has been moderately kinder to this electronic "dud". After all, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homen-Christo -- calling them by name since I'm an adoring fan myself -- intended for the album to have a robotic perception of what "being human" means. It's virtually devoid of any lyrics (aside from the often grating repetition of the song's names, respectively), so we're left with the music. And the results are hit-or-miss. "The Brainwasher" and "Technologic" are probably the somewhat most enjoyable of the bunch, matching its repetitive vodocers with some catchy techno that can easily be described in one word: "earworm". And the worst being "Robot Rock", one of Daft Punk's laziest use of sampling to date and a poor sequel to "Aerodynamic". However, one treasure (or at least by this album's standards) exists: "Make Love", an appealing, soothing throwback to their Discovery days; it's the album's "breather". So all-in-all, it's not by any means a very good album and it's justifiable for whomever finds it quite the opposite. For any Daft Punk fan, they've learned to at least commend its existence. Daft Punk are "Human After All" -- totally called for -- they're inclined to make flaws. Even robots do that every now and then. Expand
  21. Jan 12, 2014
    4
    Human After All contain a few decent tracks (specifically, the title track, Robot Rock, and Technologic), but overall is a shockingly bad release from Daft Punk. Though Daft Punk, and House music in general, has been known for it repetitive nature, this album goes way over the top. The result is a sub-par album with little to commend, and a great deal to complain about. Though some mayHuman After All contain a few decent tracks (specifically, the title track, Robot Rock, and Technologic), but overall is a shockingly bad release from Daft Punk. Though Daft Punk, and House music in general, has been known for it repetitive nature, this album goes way over the top. The result is a sub-par album with little to commend, and a great deal to complain about. Though some may still enjoy this release, you must be willing to deal with incessantly repeating melodies that can easily grain on even the most patient of listeners, and be willing to accept that this album is leagues away from the style they established with Discovery and Homework. Expand
  22. Nov 19, 2014
    5
    Eh.... Probably the weakest album. It's not bad but most of it is really weak. It has it's own nice sound (Techno/Rock) that moves away from former dancey Daft Punk. Most of the album is pretty hit or miss though.
  23. May 26, 2016
    6
    Most of the songs are repetitive as hell.That doesn't mean that they are bad, but you get bored of them pretty fast, and I think this could have been so much better if Thomas and Guy-Manuel didn't put only 6 weeks of their time in this. Yet they saved this album because of the Alive 2007 tour.
  24. Aug 9, 2016
    6
    6.0
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  25. Jul 11, 2019
    6
    Interesting at times, and surely fun in Robot Rock, TV Rules the Nation and Technologic. I just don't think this is the proper way to follow up an all-timer in Discovery and a low point for Daft Punk, even if a decent album overall.
Metascore
57

Mixed or average reviews - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 28
  2. Negative: 4 out of 28
  1. Entertainment Weekly
    50
    Dominated by overly repetitive, lumbering throwaways. [18 Mar 2005, p.68]
  2. Apparently knocked off in just six weeks, Daft Punk's third album sounds like it took six days. Six short days. With long lunches.
  3. Blender
    50
    Feels desultory and numb, verging on autistic. [Apr 2005, p.116]