Added on Tue 22 Jan 2008
Human After All
So here at the end, back at the beginning. The first track off the album, the album track in fact. It’s sort of nice to sum it up with this one, it really encompasses most of the what the album is about musically.
You know there are some pretty nasty reviews out there of this album. In my finding tracks off the net to link to, I came across a few. The basis of the criticism is that Daft Punk have done so much better in the past, their standards are higher and they should be held up to that. Well, I’m no expert on that, I don’t in fact have Homework, for example. But on the other hand I can still judge this one on merits alone… and on merits alone, it’s pretty damn good! The simple fact I can listen to this over and over (to what essentially are very repetitive tracks) tells me the music does something right, either that or I’m a bit strange in the head. What I actually love is that on each listen I hear a new crevice in the sound, the layering and distortion is changing subtly and constantly which actually takes several listens to pick up on. Ok that might be a sign right there that I’ve been sent crazy by this music! But comparing this to where I thought I was going to be after possibly listing to this album a 100 times, well… I’ll put it this way: I’m not going to listen to it again for quite a while, but I will listen to it again…. at some stage!
The song has the lyrics “we are human after all, much in common after all” repetited over and over. Just on that, many people have the lyrics as “… flesh uncovered after all”. Not that either makes a whole lot of sense, but I swear it says “much in common” or “flesh in common” it’s made harder by the humming… “mmmmmmflesh in common”??? mmmuch ??
click it to see it bigger
Moving on… I thought about including in the picture, images of the two Daft Punk guys, ‘in’ and ‘out’ of robot uniform. But I’m not entirely sure the song is from their own point of view. Actually, I’m not entirely sure where they’re coming from if not their own point of view, but that seems a bit too simple. Maybe they have discovered that through the middle of the eletronic means of making the sounds the way they do, the human element is still undeniable… and not hidden by the electronic machines?? But I thought I would be more sure of that than I am. So I decided to go with my own imagination. What I imagined were little robots, or even just little people behind masks. In fact I did have the Ned Kelly mask of Sidney Nolan’s fame in my head from the recent show, and the music applies to him (Ned) quite well too. So I crossed the two ideas together; they are robots which are human, maybe not with the fearsome history of Ned Kelly, but definitely a product of a difficult past - a predicament. And wanting needing to be treated with a human touch, which in turn will reveal the human in them otherwise hidden. Doesn’t that sound nice!
That little bit of emotion I’ve tried to get in the eyes, wide open which I hope are asking for help or for understanding. That’s really the sum of this one, everything else is just helping that happen. The masked robots/people are growing out of pots, they’re stuck in their past you see which makes them seem confined as well. Simple bodies; yes, are very ‘cross’ like. There’s an element of that sort of saving here as well. The colours are just nice to have all around. They’re sort of bringing in the musical aspect of the song and the rest of the album. I tried to include aspects from all the other pictures in this one, but didn’t stick too the idea too hard and fast. Finally, the song has one short clear tone sound “ploop” all alone in the middle. Not sure what it’s doing there? But I also put a little blue dot in the picture to capture that, that’s the concept after all.
You’ve read about it, now listen to it here via this youtube clip of the electroma film they did.
The listing on eBay is here starting at $3, and by all accounts you will definitely be able to buy it for that. (which someone did - yay for them!!) Only 2 (now 3) so far have sold on eBay, the rest were passed in for a dollar! So… I’m going to have to change my policy of listing on eBay, it’s just too expensive when you don’t actually sell the item.