Human After All

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Good article {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |Template:Short description|noreplace}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Daft Club2003Human After All: Remixes2006studioHuman After AllHumanafterall.jpgDaft Punk14 March 200513 September – 9 November 2004Daft House (Paris)Dance-rock<ref name="Reynolds"/>45:38Virgin* Thomas Bangalter

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Human After All is the third studio album by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk, released on 14 March 2005 through Virgin Records. Whereas their previous studio album, Discovery (2001), was inspired by disco and garage house and produced over two years, Human After All was more minimalistic and improvisational with heavier guitars and electronics, and was produced in six weeks.

Human After All received mixed reviews from critics, who were wary of its minimalistic, repetitive nature and considered the record inferior to Daft Punk's previous works. However, it did receive some favorable notices for the darker, experimental tone—unique from the duo's other records—and the moodier, more menacing direction.

Some singles, in particular "Robot Rock" and "Technologic", charted in several countries, while "Human After All" charted in France. Human After All reached number one on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and was nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Daft Punk incorporated the songs into their Alive 2006/2007 tour, which received acclaim.

Recording

For Human After All, Daft Punk wanted to "do the opposite" of their previous album, Discovery (2001).<ref name="Cybermen" /> During the promotion of Discovery, the Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter specifically mentioned that "Maybe our next LP might be very hard -- as long as there is the surprise."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Human After All was produced in six weeks<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> from September to November 2004,<ref name="Liner notes">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> with less than two of those weeks spent recording.<ref name="Pyramid">Template:Cite book</ref> Whereas Discovery contains many samples, Human After All only uses one.<ref name="Jones-2025">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bangalter compared the deliberately unpolished quality to "a stone that's unworked".<ref name="GQ">Template:Cite journal</ref> It was created primarily with two guitars, two drum machines, a vocoder and an eight-track machine.<ref name="TimeQ&A">Template:Cite magazine</ref> They used an inexpensive DigiTech synth wah-wah pedal extensively throughout the record.<ref name="Madeon">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Bangalter said Human After All was about fear and paranoia, and was not intended to "make you feel good".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He also stated that it and the 2006 film Daft Punk's Electroma were "extremely tormented and sad and terrifying looks at technology, but there can be some beauty and emoting from it".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He acknowledged the perceived mechanical quality of the record, but felt that it expressed "the dance between humanity and technology".<ref name=TimeQ&A />

At the time of Human After All's release, Daft Punk considered it their favourite album, and described it as "pure improvisation".<ref name="Cybermen">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo said that every album they made was "tightly linked with our lives" and that "the internal, personal stuff Thomas went through during Human After All made it closer to where he was at the time".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Music

Whereas Discovery uses conventional pop song structures, Human After All uses repetitive loops.<ref name="Jones-2025" /> A press release said Human After All was "more spontaneous and direct" than Daft Punk's previous albums.<ref name="pressrelease">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Stereogum described the first track, "Human After All", as "deceptively cheerful-sounding", with "back-and-forth" staccato guitar.<ref name="Jones-2025" /> "The Prime Time of Your Life" pairs a "gnarled, percussive low-end melody" with processed vocals.<ref name="Jones-2025" /> "Robot Rock" uses a sample of the main melody of the 1980 Breakwater song "Release the Beast", with "amped-up" funk riffs.<ref name="Jones-2025" /> "Steam Machine" and "The Brainwasher" are "crunchy, biting" industrial tracks and "Make Love" is "mellow" neo soul.<ref name="Jones-2025" /> "Technologic" is a "guitar-heavy" track, with a monotonous pitch-shifted voice intoning instructions such as "buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail, upgrade it".<ref name="Jones-2025" /> For the final song "Emotion", it was observed that despite the title word repeating throughout its duration, the singing voice itself lacks emotive expression.<ref name="Weiner"/>

Release and promotion

Leading up to the release of Human After All, promotional CDs of the album were distributed with tamper-evident seals, as well as individual watermarks to identify each recipient.<ref name=DJ2005>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Retail copies on CD also implemented Copy Control protection against unauthorized duplication. Nevertheless, the album leaked online several months before release. Fans confused by its radically different style initially speculated that it was a fake designed to foil online filesharing.<ref name="Phares">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Lynskey" />

In 2013, Spin wrote that the official release of the album had been ill-timed, as it occurred after the end of the "major-label electronica movement" of the 1990s, but before the rise of independent dance labels such as DFA Records and Ed Banger.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Daft Punk gave no interviews to promote the album, as they felt this would run contrary to the album's theme of the media as an oppressive force.<ref name="Telerama">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The only official statement given by Daft Punk at the time was: "We believe that Human After All speaks for itself".<ref name="LinerNotesJapan">Human After All Japan edition (liner notes). Daft Punk. Virgin Records, a division of EMI Music France. 2005.</ref><ref name=DJ2005 /> De Homem-Christo later said that choosing to be silent was the biggest mistake they had ever made.<ref name="Telerama" />

Bangalter emphasized that their only promotion for the album would be through its music videos. To that end, Daft Punk directed the videos for "Robot Rock" and "Technologic", having previously directed the video for their song "Fresh".<ref name=Cardew>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tony Gardner directed the video for "The Prime Time of Your Life", though Bangalter predicted that it would be impractical for promotional use due to its graphic content.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Cardew /> Daft Punk intended to make a video for the song "Human After All" as well, but the footage they shot for it was expanded to create the film Daft Punk's Electroma instead.<ref name="Hurteau">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2025, a music video for the song "Television Rules the Nation" filmed during the album's promotion was released on Daft Punk's official YouTube channel, after the video allegedly leaked in poor quality in the 2000s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Songs from Human After All also appear in the Daft Punk compilation Musique Vol. 1 1993–2005<ref>{{#ifeq: | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000401576{{

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The cover image of Human After All features the Daft Punk logo displayed on a television screen. Each single from the album features a cover with a different image on a similar screen. Bangalter cited the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell as an inspiration for the record.<ref name="Telerama" />

Sales

The album topped the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart<ref name="BillboardDE"/> and peaked at number 98 on the Billboard 200.<ref name="Billboard200"/> It reached number three in France<ref name="SNEPChart"/> and received a double gold certification from the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) one month after its release.<ref name="SNEPCert"/> It also received a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in the United Kingdom,<ref name="UKCert"/> where it peaked at number 10.<ref name="UKChart"/> As of May 2013, the album has sold 127,000 copies in the US<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and 80,838 copies in the UK.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The first single from the album, "Robot Rock", received moderate attention, reaching number 32 in the UK and number 15 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart, but was not a major hit.<ref>"Archive Chart" Template:Webarchive UK Singles Chart. Retrieved 16 October 2017.</ref><ref>"Daft Punk Chart History" Template:Webarchive Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs for Daft Punk. Retrieved 16 October 2017.</ref> The second single, "Technologic", reached number 40 in the UK but did considerably better in airplay<ref>"10 July 2005 / Archive Chart" Template:Webarchive. UK Singles Chart. Retrieved 16 October 2017.</ref> and was featured in an iPod commercial.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "Human After All" reached number 93 in France.<ref name="Les">"Lescharts.com – Daft Punk – Human After All" Template:Webarchive. Hung Medien. Retrieved 22 May 2012.</ref>

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Human After All received an average score of 57, indicating "mixed or average reviews", based on 28 reviews.<ref name="MC"/> In his review for Blender magazine, Simon Reynolds said that DiscoveryTemplate:'s blissful and "open-hearted" music had been replaced by "an archly ironic dance-rock that feels desultory and numb – verging on autistic".<ref name="Reynolds">Template:Cite journal</ref> Q felt that it lacked the "fun" of Daft Punk's previous work.<ref name="Qmag">Template:Cite journal</ref> Barry Walters of Rolling Stone said that the duo generally "repeats rather than elaborates its riffs", and that they "exaggerate their band's own robotic tendencies here, much to the detriment of its grooves".<ref name= "Walters">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian called the album "a joyless collection of average ideas stretched desperately thin".<ref name= "Lynskey">Template:Cite news</ref> Robert Christgau from The Village Voice graded the album a "dud",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mixmag wrote that Human After All sounded "as if Bangalter took a holiday and let his four year-old son ... loose in the studio with a toy sound machine".<ref name="Cybermen" />

In a positive review, Matthew Weiner of Stylus Magazine wrote: "It's the same story, track after track, willfully mistaking alternation for variation, intensification for development and dynamics. In other words, a shining example of pop songcraft in the 21st century."<ref name="Weiner">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Mojo magazine said that it "strips out the most flamboyant frills to create a more incisive sound".<ref name="Mojo">Template:Cite journal</ref> Human After All was nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album, but lost to the Chemical Brothers album Push the Button.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Legacy

Many reassessed Human After All after Daft Punk's Alive 2006/2007 tour.<ref name="Pitchfork2007">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="PitchforkAlive">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pedro Winter, Daft Punk's manager at the time, said: "Everyone shut their mouths... People even apologized, like, 'How could we have misjudged Daft Punk?' The live show changed everything. Even if I'm part of it, I like to step back and admire it. Me, I cried."<ref name="HAA2007">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Bangalter said: "Human After All was the music we wanted to make at the time we did it. We have always strongly felt there was a logical connection between our three albums, and it's great to see that people seem to realize that when they listen now to the live show."<ref name="Pitchfork2007" />

Elements from Human After All would later appear in records from other artists. Daft Punk produced the Teriyaki Boyz song "HeartBreaker", which features elements of the song "Human After All".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "Technologic" was sampled in the Busta Rhymes single "Touch It", produced by Swizz Beatz. Subsequently, elements of both "Technologic" and "Touch It" were featured in Daft Punk's live album Alive 2007.<ref name="LinerNotes">Alive 2007 (liner notes). Daft Punk. Virgin Records, a division of EMI Music France. 2007.</ref> A portion of the vocals were also altered for the Hannah Wants single "Rhymes", which reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart in 2015. "Technologic" was later interpolated in the 2024 single "Guess" by Charli XCX.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Track listing

• "Robot Rock" contains a sample of "Release the Beast" performed by Breakwater.<ref name="Liner notes"/>

Personnel

Adapted from the Human After All liner notes.<ref name="Liner notes"/>

• Daft Punk – vocals, guitars, drum machines, synthesizers, piano, bass guitar, vocoder, programming, production
• Cédric Hervet – production coordination
• Gildas Loaëc – production coordination
• Nilesh Patel – mastering

Remix album

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Human After All: Remixes is an album consisting of various remixes of songs from Human After All by musicians such as Soulwax and Justice. It was originally released on 29 March 2006<ref name="itunes"/> exclusively in Japan.<ref name=verge-humanafterall>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 17 June 2014, a reissue of the album was released, also exclusive to Japan. The new edition featured four additional bonus tracks.<ref name=gigwise-haareissue>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 9 August 2014, this version of the album was silently released internationally for the first time, containing an additional remix of "Technologic" by Le Knight Club.<ref name=verge-humanafterall/>

Charts

Weekly charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Chart (2005)	Peak position
Canadian Albums (Nielsen BDS)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	38
Greek Albums (IFPI)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	6

Chart (2021)	Peak position
Croatian International Albums (HDU)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	12

Year-end charts

Chart (2005)	Position
French Albums (SNEP)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	92
US Electronic Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	16

External links

• Template:Discogs master
• Template:Discogs master