Royksopp - Junior
Royksopp - Junior
[Wall Of Sound, 2009]
I’ll start with the main thing: The Girl And The Robot would have been on my top list in 2008 if it was released then. We’ll see by the end of the year, but this is probably the first definite candidate for my 2009 favorites list. And the whole album is really good. Junior is the third “child” of this Norwegian duo. Surely better than the sophomore, The Understanding (2005) - at the end of the day, you’re basically left with What Else Is There. It’s harder to compare with their debut, Melody A.M. (2001), as it had the main competitive advantage, the charm of new. Junior is stylistically somewhere in-between the two. The “airiness” and lightness (which the second album lacked) is back, and the density (not present on the first album) added.
This is a great masterful shoot with featurings too. Not uncommon for Royksopp Anneli Dreker. Karin Dreijer on This Must Be It - as always easy to recognize, a bit sickly vocals on the poppy disco-trance canvas. She also appears on Tricky Tricky. If Dreijer is basically Royksopp’s “business card”, then Lykke Li (on Miss It So Much and Were You Ever Wanted) and Robyn are more like fashion appearances. Though not just for the fashion’s sake at all. Robyn’s featuring on The Girl And The Robot is simply perfect and, I’ll say it again, the song itself is fantastic. Immersing into the deep and gloomy, a speedy electro rhythm, very dancefloor-friendly and piercing vocals of Robyn. One of the best tracks of the season - so far. Hard not to mention the first single, Happy Up Here - it reminds of Royksopp’s debut album. Here, from the very first seconds, rises the infantly electronic popcorn - exactly what these guys can make. The track itself if not primitive, it’s masterfully constructed of small parts, quite a few of them - but it’s not heavyweight, the whole sound remains light and balanced.
All in all, you can’t get away from a very familiar French taste - here and there it’s a distinct Air sound, especially visible on Royksopp Forever, Vision One, Miss It So Much - that is, on slower tracks. The flexibility of music lines and lightness are there. Faster and slower parts of the album are very well connected, they sort of flow into each other and are supported by the general atmosphere. Junior is a very strong album, it’s like a night sky - with lots of constellations and one or two brightest stars - beautiful separately and inside the whole sky.
Read & Listen:
Official website
Happy Up Here video
Royksopp - The Girl and the Robot (stream)
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