Röyksopp - Junior

Junior

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1. Happy Up Here
2. The Girl and the Robot
3. Vision One
4. This Must Be It
5. Röyksopp Forever
6. Miss It So Much
7. Tricky Tricky
8. You Don't Have A Clue
9. Silver Cruiser
10. True to Life
11. It's What I Want
12. Were You Ever Wanted


They take their time, these fellas. The electronic chillout legends from Norway have been tentative when it comes to releasing full length albums, but when you release records as groundbreaking and goddamn awesome as Melody A.M. , we're willing to forgive. No pressure on Junior then, 4 years after 2005's upbeat offering The Understanding.

For the band's 3rd full length, they've pulled out all the stops in assembling an all-star ass kicking team of Nordic talent, consisting of Robyn, Lykke Li, and Karin Dreijer of the Knife. Also appearing is Anneli Drecker, who appeared on 2001's Melody A.M.
The album sets the bar high, slightly too high, with first single Happy Up Here. Encapsulating the classic Röyksopp sound, blips and blops, a waxy bassline, and a touch of campness, it ensures that Junior has your attention, and is simply magnificient. This is what juicy fruit flavoured gum sounds like. As someone I know once said, however, the danger with singles being released before albums is that after repeated listens, they then become that song. The song that's a reference point for the entire album, what following songs will be judged by. Röyksopp aren't really a singles, dancefloor slaying machine. They make swathes of driven, chillout bliss, and although the album is good, the strength of the first track almost detracts from the overall listen. I'm guessing the average listener will maybe make it five tracks in before they stick on Happy Up Here again.

Enough of that, back to the driven electronica I was talking about. The Girl and the Robot, with Robyn on vocals, demonstrates this perfectly. The tune doesn't go the way you think it should....like most Röyksopp songs. It pays off however, and is another example of a Röyksopp song being highly enjoyable but also having something indistinguishably sinister about it at the same time.
Junior takes its foot off the gas slightly, (but what do I want from a chillout duo, I guess) whilst remaining no less brilliant. The wonderfully distinctive voice of Karin Dreijer bursts through on This Must Be It, a stomping electro voodoo beast, a fitting precursor to a "Let's go all quiet" moment, Röyksopp Forever. Moments like this on the album prove that these guys still know how to take it down a notch better than most. Miss It So Much is an album highlight, featuring Swedish indie pop pixie Lykke Li. Unlike the other collaborations on the album, (which are still sweet) it seems as though more thought has gone into this one. The song matches her voice perfectly, and could really be one of her own songs played on keyboards with blippity blops, a contrast to what seems to be a slightly, recordsomeelectroandthrowabignameatit attitude. Also, that which cannot pass without comment is Tricky Tricky. I quite like it, but I have to say, "Six afraid of seven, cos seven ate nine" has to be one of the campest/unsettling things i've heard this year. It's a bit like anything presented by Dale Winton. Regardless, these guys still have the tunes to pull through.

Junior is good. I was however, really, really looking forward to this. Anything that promises a mix of Melody A.M. and The Understanding, frankly, should be friggin' awesome. It's not that it's not....it's just....I dunno. It's already grown on me after several listens, and hopefully it will continue to do so. It's still one of the best releases of 2009 so far, and the best electronic album of the year so far, but I was expecting instant classic material. And even after several listens, I don't think i'm going to get that. It suffers slightly from not knowing whether it's an upbeat electronic stomper of an album or a chilled out lounge party record, and while that is a mix of the two aformentioned albums, the contrast is done with little grace, with one track being a pulsing dance tune and the next being a wistful blippy bloppy marshmallow.

It isn't quite the musical apex that Melody A.M. was, but even still. I'm happy up here.

8.6/10