Written by and produced by the band members and co-produced by Stuart Price, it was released as the first single from their third studio album Day & Age (2008).

The song was released on a seven-inch picture disc throughout the world on various dates in November 2008, with a B-side entitled "A Crippling Blow".

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine's Smoking Section, Brandon Flowers described "Human" as "Johnny Cash meets the Pet Shop Boys".

An interview in The Observer newspaper stated that the track "is a cross between New Order and Bruce Springsteen - that should please fans of 'Mr.

Chris Williams of Billboard gave a positive review, echoing The Observer's description of "merging a Boss-like melody over a New Order-injected rave-up."

and also says that the lyric was inspired by a disparaging comment made by Hunter S. Thompson, who stated that America was "raising a generation of dancers, afraid to take one step out of line".

[16][17] From an interview: Flowers is irritated that people don't quite seem to get the lyric, and that fans were unhappy with the song's dance beat.

The song debuted and peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart week of October 18, 2008,[21] giving the Killers their third top-40 hit there.

It reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, and in 2012, BBC Radio 1 announced that it was the 39th-most-downloaded song of all time in the country.

It has been noted to have heavy similarities to Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii concert film, such as the band playing the song in a desert landscape amongst various amplifiers and other stage equipment and mostly in much of the camera angles.

The video ends with the band watching the sun setting in the desert, which turns into the album cover, also drawn by Paul Normansell.