Maps of Music

Human After All (2005)

Where the lyrics of Human After All take you, and where it was really made.

Daft Punk made this album in six weeks, with less than two of those weeks spent recording, and it was first received as a critical disappointment before a later tour changed how many people heard it.

Key places

Daft House in Paris, the recording place (2005)

Recording site Pathé Marconi studios — Daft House (Paris) is listed as the recording place for this album. The album was produced from September to November 2004, with less than two of those weeks spent recording. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Human After All is the third studio album by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk
• Released 14 March 2005 through Virgin Records
• Its predecessor Discovery (2001) was inspired by disco and garage house and took over two years to produce
• Human After All is more minimalistic and improvisational, with heavier guitars and electronics
• The album was produced in six weeks

Background

• The duo wanted to do the opposite of Discovery
• Thomas Bangalter had earlier said the next LP might be very hard, as long as there was a surprise
• At release, Daft Punk considered it their favourite album and called it pure improvisation
• Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo said the album was closer to where Bangalter was at the time, because of the internal and personal things he went through while making it

Recording

• Produced from September to November 2004, with less than two of those weeks spent recording
• Discovery contains many samples, but Human After All uses only one
• Bangalter compared the deliberately unpolished quality to a stone that is unworked
• Built mainly from two guitars, two drum machines, a vocoder and an eight-track machine
• An inexpensive DigiTech synth wah-wah pedal was used extensively throughout the record
• Bangalter said the album is about fear and paranoia and was not meant to make listeners feel good

Cover

• The cover image shows the Daft Punk logo on a television screen
• Each single has a cover with a different image on a similar screen
• Bangalter cited George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four as an inspiration for the record

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Daft Punk is a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo.
• The duo grew out of their earlier band Darlin', which disbanded after around six months. The name Daft Punk came from a Melody Maker review of Darlin' that called their music "a daft, punky thrash."
• They were managed from 1996 to 2008 by Pedro Winter, head of Ed Banger Records.

Members

• Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo are the two core members.
• From 1999 to 2021 they performed in robot personas, with Bangalter in a silver helmet and Homem-Christo in gold.

Career

• The debut album Homework (1997) on Virgin Records was backed by the singles "Around the World" and "Da Funk".
• Discovery (2001) earned acclaim and hit singles including "One More Time", "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". It became the basis for the animated film Interstella 5555 (2003).
• Human After All (2005) received mixed reviews. The duo also directed the film Electroma (2006).
• The Alive 2006/2007 tour is credited with broadening the appeal of dance music in North America. Alive 2007 won a Grammy.
• They composed the score for Tron: Legacy (2010).
• Random Access Memories (2013), released on Columbia Records, won five Grammy Awards in 2014, including Album of the Year. Its single "Get Lucky" was their first UK number-one.
• "Starboy" with the Weeknd (2016) was their only US Billboard Hot 100 number one.
• They announced their split in February 2021 after 28 years.
• Rolling Stone ranked them the 12th-greatest musical duo of all time in 2015.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critics gave the album mixed reviews
• Reviewers disliked its minimalistic and repetitive nature and considered it inferior to Daft Punk's previous works
• Metacritic gave it an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 28 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews
• Simon Reynolds wrote for Blender that the open-hearted music of Discovery had been replaced by an archly ironic dance-rock that felt desultory and numb
• Q felt the album lacked the fun of Daft Punk's previous work
• Barry Walters of Rolling Stone said the duo generally repeats rather than elaborates its riffs
• Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian called it a joyless collection of average ideas stretched desperately thin
• Robert Christgau of The Village Voice graded it a dud
• Mixmag wrote that it sounded as if Bangalter took a holiday and let his four-year-old son loose in the studio with a toy sound machine
• Matthew Weiner of Stylus Magazine gave a positive review, calling it a shining example of pop songcraft in the 21st century
• Mojo said it strips out the most flamboyant frills to create a more incisive sound

Reappraisal

• Some critics noted a darker experimental tone distinct from Daft Punk's other records
• Many reassessed the album after the Alive 2006/2007 tour, which received huge acclaim
• Fans and critics said they had misjudged Daft Punk, and the album gained widespread retrospective acclaim

Records

• Topped the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart
• Peaked at number 98 on the Billboard 200
• Reached number three in France and received a double gold certification from SNEP one month after release
• Peaked at number 10 in the UK and received a silver certification from the BPI
• As of May 2013, sold 127,000 copies in the US and 80,838 copies in the UK
• Nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album, but lost to the Chemical Brothers album Push the Button

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album leaked online several months before release, and early fans initially speculated it was a fake designed to foil online filesharing.
• Daft Punk gave no interviews to promote the album; their only official statement was that they believed Human After All speaks for itself.
• Bangalter said the only promotion would be through the music videos, and the duo directed the videos for Robot Rock and Technologic.
• The footage shot for an intended Human After All video was expanded into the 2006 film Daft Punk's Electroma.
• A remix album, Human After All: Remixes, was released in 2006 exclusively in Japan.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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