So what's changed since then? Well, not very much, to tell the truth. Third album 'Human After All' is what you much expect from Daft Punk. Robots playing guitars and funked out buzzing rhythms that sound like AC-DC produced by Kraftwerk. Bangalter's spin pre-album release has been that there was going to be experimentation on this album, and yes that experimentation becomes obvious when you hear 'The Prime Time Of Your Life' where the 'Punk go all techno Krautrock; but still, the staple vocodors cut throughout the track, and the Parisian chic is present, the difference this time is that halfway through the tune a klang starts and we're travelling down the Autobahn with Ralf and his android mates. Swirling rumbles, primeval beats: pure electronic avant-psychedelia. So... different, but still very similar in ethos. And that sets the scenario for the opening half of the album as we slam into what'll be a dance single of the year in 'Robot Rock'. It's classic Daft Punk creating an instant euro-techno floor filler that kicks ass and crosses all listening audiences. Expect to hear it everywhere from Yates Winelodge to illegal raves. It's a big tune, a dark gothic crash of beats, robotic chanting and twisted 303. The track 'Make Love' is a dance ballad that sounds as though it should have been recorded for a scene in Miami Vice or a cross between Suicide and The Cars. Opener title-track 'Human After All' is a timeless electro-funk rumble that sounds like the chemical equivalent of Grace Jones, New Order and Black Sabbath mixed inside a test tube. It's different and varied, but it maintains a sense of the DP.

All of which is very encouraging, yet the rest of the album droops, turning into a formula, less original and certainly less of the robot-pop. Things become less human, more stark and cold. '' is Man Machine 2005. More of the metallic liquid voices and hard edged rhythms, it's the usual comment on the classic idea that man is an extension of the appliances he uses. Closer 'Emotion' lays on the repetitive sweetness, trying it's hardest to prove the albums concept of bringing the human outta technology to create decent music. It's supermarket muzak for the future. It doesn't rock. It almost meanders to nothing.

If you like hard-edged electro, vocoders, Teutonic house beats then you will find something neat here without any shadow of a doubt. The later half of the album does stand up, but lacks that Daft Punk element of fun and emotion. It's not a massive progression from their debut, and it appears that as the rest of the world has finally caught up with them, the duo from space appear to be having problems going forward...