This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Say what you will about Daft Punk, you can’t say they’re trying too hard. Quite the contrary — on their third studio album Human After All, the Parisian dance-pop duo barely seem to be trying at all.
Nearly all 10 cuts on this 45-minute disc seem to have been built from the same basic blueprint: 1) Punch in a snappy beatbox groove so simple Ringo Starr could play it with one hand; 2) Add a fuzzed-out synth lick; 3) Come up with a title that fits the track — as in, ‘Hey, this sounds pretty robotic; let’s call it Robot Rock!’; 4) Sing said title through a Vocoder with a simple melody; 5) Loop it all together and repeat until the drugs wear off, and; 6) Above all, avoid unnecessary complexities like verses, choruses or bridges. It’s all so simple a child could decode it — and probably could have written most of these songs on their little My First Synthesizers®.
Granted, Daft Punk’s keep-it-simply-stupid approach makes for instantly hooky, irresistibly hypnotic fare. Trouble is, unless you’re at the disco, stoned out of your gourd, or actually have the attention span of a toddler, it also makes for one-dimensional novelties that might wear off before the drugs do.
