dreaming wide awake

A Case For Röyksopp

I currently can't stop listening to Röyksopp. But I took the long way getting here. Here are some key milestones:

1. Late '04 – one of my friends who gives me more music to listen to than I could possibly ever digest, gives me a stack. In that stack is Melody A.M., Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp's 2001 debut release. The artwork was throwaway, used bin electronica blandness. After a quick listen to the stack, however, this was the only disc left standing. (But it was still only pleasant at best.)

2. At work, Melody A.M. happens to be playing when I get stuck doing a long job. Makes the job go by fast, like listening to Bach or Plaid. I think more highly of it.

3. I go back to it later hoping to get in the same zone. I do. This is good shit. I'm going to buy it for myself.

4. Spring '05: Eventually, I grow to like the album a lot. It still has twinges of Judy Adams-ness (local public radio DJ who has a world/beat/electronica show that makes you feel like all music is a little cheesy). It seems to still have that global, used bin electronic blandness at the edges, but solid writing. Reminds me more of my favorite electronic group, Plaid.

5. Summer '05: New album out. The Understanding. Artwork is much better. Brilliant even. But, what are these awful R'n'B pop vanilla soulless vocals smothered all over everything? Their vocals are fine, but the guests... I don't know... Still, that single, though it's all club med 90s frat trash, is just beautiful. The guitar hook alone sells me. But the rest of the album I have a hard time with.

6. Max (the other guy on this site), who's a music supervisor at an ad agency, gets an instrumental, no-vocals version for ad placement. I try that and start to realize how good the tracks themselves are, without the eurotrash vocals.

7. Then, I go back to the vocals version and my goodness gracious, if I don't get it all now. This is hip shit posing as pop trash. I go back to Melody A.M. and see the same thing. Everything sounds slurpier, more jagged, crunchier, more subversive and better composed.

8. Present day: I can't stop listening to Röyksopp. Somebody help me. Dear god. It's seeping into my dreams and I want to get with a girl just so we can break up and I can listen to this.

Röyksopp – Someone Like Me (Them singing, from The Understanding)
Röyksopp – A Higher Place (From Melody A.M.)

posted by Daniel @ 7:38 PM