Search - Royksopp :: JUNIOR

The Compromise

SmokyTGAB | 04/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Röyksopp burst into the electronica scene with their ambient, flowing 1999 album "Melody AM", a freshman delight that propelled them to fame. I've had it in my car for all but 6 months since I bought it in 2004. However, their 2005 album "The Understanding" saw a dramatic shift to a much poppier, collection-of-singles feel. Junior finally brings with it a compromise.



The entire album starts off with a sample of the Norwegian duo's sincere and joyful laugh. The mood holds with "Happy Up Here", the delightful, bouncy main line that harkens back to Melody AM's mood but with The Understanding's poppy chord structures. An immediate change of tone of "The Girl and the Robot" brings a full vocal track with a backing of haunting moans like those of a middle-age religious piece. Truly this track accomplishes the darkness and melancholy that The Understanding strove for but could not quite reach. The strength of the stand-alone tracks becomes evident from this piece alone and shows how the duo can simultaneously build a rolling soundscape that will still hold its own in the pop singles charts. Vision One continues the future dystopian theme with serious compression occurring on the backing keyboard part lending the entire piece a bit of a sticky feel such as that of Melody AM's 40 years/Come back's string bass part. This Must Be It, albeit fairly forgettable, allows for a less sharp divide between its predecessor, thus allowing for a more sentimental theme to press forward. Royksopp forever delivers another deliciously instrumental piece, a time when they almost always shine. The heavy violins and slurring bass lines bring a feeling of epic confrontation and shift to the track. A sudden key change totally upsets the raw determination of the piece, as though it was climbing a hill and reaching the crest. In this masterful way, the track fades away to Miss It So Much, a much softer, almost childish piece once more set in the future. The innocent vocals shine through like a small child running through the glacial landscape of the duo's Scandinavian homeland. Tricky Tricky is a frantic piece of whimsical panic that brings some of the dark pop back from The Understanding but just enough crazy to confirm that this is still the Royksopp that put out those feel-good poppy hits a little less than a decade ago. You Don't Have A Clue makes a powerful follow-up leading to a feeling of back-and-forth between stark-eyed futuristic depression and innocent idealistic lover fodder. Silver Cruiser brings the greatest instrumental contribution to the track. In the tradition of tape music with heavy sampling, this track is simply a melody of recorded instruments with some light electronic touchings-up to make it more acceptable to the album as a whole. The entire piece brings a very subtle about-face to the table as it quietly changes mood from plodding and dejected gray-world 5 PM melancholy to a warm, complacent bubble-bath of hazy autumn afternoon sun in the final bars, bringing with it a harmony rarely allowed in typical club electronica. True To Life, honestly, pretty forgettable. It's dark and haunting, but really just not the kind of material that has any real memorable quality to it. Finally, It's What I Want makes a fine finishing track with a rather surreal ending. The strange feeling of off-key falsetto makes it feel more like there was some sort of strangle synthesis as compared to actual singing, but indeed this may well not be the case.



In conclusion, Junior is a rare bridge between an artist's historic phases. For those disappointed by The Understanding, grab Junior and let the Royksopp back into your hearts."