Daft Punk
Human After All
(Virgin)
Daft Punk's 2001 comeback, Discovery, gleefully embraced the ridiculous. It was a period during which duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo insisted they'd been kidnapped and replaced by robots.
The album polarised the masses who had previously worn the band as a badge on their sleeves of cool: its unbridled euphoria, robot voices, tacky vocals and insanely catchy Casio melodies were regarded either as a work of genius or an utter disgrace. It was at the very least a multi-coloured mish-mash of every musical style possible, and so defiantly unafraid to upset the dance cognoscenti that it seemed a victory in itself.
Another four years on and Human After All finds the duo on an altogether darker trip. The beats are harder, the melodies fleeting and the pace almost unrelenting. Apparently their point here is that rock'n'roll has been killed by over-exposure - i.e. television - and so its spirit is non-existent. A valid argument: but why choose to make the point that modern music sucks with an album that doesn't fare much better?
