Röyksopp "Melody A.M." (2001)

Melody A.M. [debut]
release date: Oct. 2001
format: 2 cd (LTD.)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Röyksopp
label: Wall of Sound - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "So Easy" - 2. "Eple" - 4. "In Space" - 5. "Poor Leno" - 8. "Remind Me"

Studio album debut by Norwegian duo Röyksopp consisting of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland is electronic downbeat with a certain ambient touch. It bears traces from a big mix of various influences where one will find reverberations from 1960s pop / rock and 1980s synthpop all fusioned with techno and dance pop of the 90s. Artists like Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Art of Noise, Aphex Twin, AIR, Fatboy Slim and Moby sound like obvious inspirational sources.
A few of the ten tracks have a more electropop-founded style, which have brought them wider recognition with various remixes, and this is not all bad. The album went straight to #1 on the national albums chart list, and the single "Eple" reached number #16 in the UK. What seems more vital to the band's popularity is the fact that many of the songs from the album have ended up in various commercial outings - e.g. computer and video games as well as television adds. The album is also enlisted in "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die."
It's an interesting albeit somewhat big scoped soundscape and a debut pointing in truly many directions. The track "Eple" was used as background or signature music in a vast number of tv productions of the early 2000s.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, NME, Blender, Q Magazine, The Guardian 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

Röyksopp "The Understanding" (2005)

The Understanding
release date: Jun. 27, 2005
format: cd (LTD.)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: Röyksopp
label: Wall of Sound - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "Triumphant" - 2. "Only This Moment" - 3. "49 Percent" - 7. "What Else Is There?" - 8. "Circuit Breaker" - 9. "Alpha Male" - *17. "Looser Now"
*Track 5 on bonus disc

2nd studio album by Norwegian duo Röyksopp continues where Melody A.M. ended - perhaps with an even stronger focus on synthpop on this.
The album was preceded by the single "Only This Moment", which fared quite Okay peaking at number #33 in the UK and as number #18 on the Dance list in the US. "49 Percent" was released after the album and it reached number #55 in the UK, but the single "What Else Is There?" featuring Karin Dreijer of the Swedish band The Knife became the best-selling single of the album peaking at number #32 on the general singles chart list in the UK; however, on top of the UK Dance list - and as number #4 in Norway. A fourth and final single release was issued in 2006 with the song "Beautiful Day Without You", which didn't leave traces on singles lists. The album entered the national albums chart list as number #1, peaked at number #7 in Sweden and number #13 in the UK.
The album doesn't contain a great number of hit songs but still serve to document how the duo is fully capable of making simplistic but alternative dance-friendly compositions without focusing on strong vocal harmonies, although, I still think they are best when making music with guest / featuring artists, which also is the case here with Chelonis R. Jones (tracks #3 and #13) and Karin Dreijer (track #7). Another thing, I like about the music is the way they make use of progressiveness as a musical trait, in a Jean-Michel Jarre (#9 "Alpha Male" and on other tracks) kind-of-way. It makes their music less confined though it often leaves me wanting it to lead to something instead of just running out.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Slant 3 / 5, The Guardian, NME 4 / 5 stars ]