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The summer of 2001 was a blissful one: Mike, Tobin, Ethel, and I had just packed up all our stuff (well, to be fair, Mike and I did all the work), and moved to Seattle. And the soundtrack for our new joy was introduced to us by Jeremy: Discovery, the latest release at the time by Daft Punk. We didn't know anything about this band, but later learned they're a Parisian duo of two DJ's, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. Discovery was pure disco-fun delight, electronic-pop bliss...heck, they even sampled a Barry Manilow song! How fun is that?
So, naturally, all of us were waiting pretty anxiously for their follow-up album. Years and years passed. But, finally, this month, it's out: Human After All. And? Sadly, I hate it. In fact, it's so excrutiatingly bad, that I couldn't even muster up the energy to give it another listen through to write this review.
Mike read online that the band wrote and recorded this album in 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS?! You boys have had FOUR YEARS to put something together!
Thomas: "Uh, Guy-Manuel? I was at Sharper Image getting the LCD on my space mask fixed and our credit card was declined..."
Guy Manuel: "Don't we have any money left-over from that Gap commercial we did with Juliette Lewis? No? Oh, I guess we better put out a new album..."
The songs are painfully repetitive and devoid of any structure. It's like, just a single chord progression repeated ad nauseum for five minutes. ("Oh, crap, Thomas, I can't write a song...", "Just keep doing that for a full-song length...when kids are tricked out on E they will love it...") You'll wonder if your CD is skipping because nothing happens during the songs! The soulful male singer they brought in for Discovery? I guess he didn't fit into their six week recording schedule. In fact, there's hardly any vocals on this at all! I wish I had something more positive to say about this since we've all been waiting for so long, and since we know they're capable of so much better, but sadly...I really can't recommend this new CD! (janice.03.05)
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