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Rating: After a debut that was nothing short of brilliant (Melody A.M.) and an equally sizzling follow-up (The Understanding), the Norwegian duo Röyksopp sought to encapsulate – so to speak, the two musical "faces" of their initial duo, mostly expanding and enriching them with the deserved mastery of the Scandinavian electronic professors. From this emerged the current latest double act of the duo, Junior and Senior, bound together in a creative, chronological link, almost evoking the "carefree" and "serious" roles suggested by their respective titles. If Senior represents the mature, introspective, severe, complex, and elaborate side, the counterpart Junior reflects a kind of cheerful and carefree "play" with the synths and with the dance context in general: on one side, it introduces a tour-de-force of instrumental tracks, lost in the chill-ambient ocean, rustlings, and sounds of nature boxed in the creative artifice, on the other stands a substantial lineup of much easier vocal electropop productions, danceable, commercial (but not plastic, bland, and standardized), a mirror of the desire to rediscover the flower of synthpop and the illustrious master-legends from the most hidden beginnings.
Junior, released in 2009, explores - as already mentioned - the poppish, boisterous, frivolous, festive, and jovial side of the esteemed Röyksopp company (unlike the dreamy-spectral atmospheres of the challenging Senior, offered the following year), perfectly timed moreover with the explosion of the mass electronic phenomenon and the various glossy yet damn retro Lady Gaga & company. Starting from the iconic The Girl And The Robot (released as the second single and featuring Swedish colleague Robyn), the best corollary of everything that the fluorescent & multicolor Eighties have offered - and continue to offer - the album is a real dive into the past, a rediscovery of the genuineness of the magnificent decade and its representatives, the time travel forged in the most vintage vintage possible.
Despite lacking the complex avant-garde of Melody A.M. and the complete dialectic between vocal tracks and instrumental pieces in The Understanding, Junior nevertheless rises to a rightful evolution of such an artistic and creative path, a worthy continuation (or bifurcation, if anything) of the genuine "turn" towards poppish tendencies undertaken in several moments post-debut. Along with the already mentioned gem The Girl And The Robot, the album offers further moments of sound retro pleasure, among which stand out the very funky Happy Up Here, a semi-reminiscence of the trip-hop tones already the duo's heritage, the techno-robotic diversions of Vision One and the disco-innocence conveyed by Miss It So Much. Curious is the pseudo instrumental 1980s theme Tricky Tricky, aligned with the Pet-Shop-Boys inspired This Must Be It, the ambient-chill out residues in Silver Cruiser, the breezy electro-glitch True To Life and the synth ballad You Don't Have A Clue.
Pleasant, sweet, simple, fresh, and carefree, Junior reveals the "easy" and less committed and virtuoso side of Röyksopp, a pop-revival exam passed with high marks, proven proof that diving into the dance-electronic combo does not always equate to garbage, sonic distortion, and today's mix of bass. Should Röyksopp be giving lessons to their jaunty DJ colleagues, who are far too familiar with the charts and mass easygoingness?
Röyksopp, Junior
Happy Up Here - The Girl And The Robot - Vision One - This Must Be It - Röyksopp Forever - Miss It So Much - Tricky Tricky - You Don't Have A Clue - Silver Cruiser - True To Life - It's What I Want
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Happy Up Here (02:43)
You know I really like it
I know I'll always be here
You know it makes my heart beat
You know I'm happy up here
World, what you got for me
Just bring it on!
What's it gonna be?
Are you ready for it?
World, what you got for me
Just bring it on!
What's it gonna be?
I'm ready for it!
You know I really like it
I know I'll always be here
Whatever you do
Whatever you say
Nothing can push the feeling away
It's here in my heart
And it's here in my head
I feel like I'm part of book I've read
And every page
And every paper
Seems to be part of human nature
Sending me back down on memory lane
My favourite record is playing again
You know I really like it
I know I'll always be here
You know it makes my heart beat
02 The Girl and the Robot (04:29)
I go mental every time you leave for work
You never seem to know when to stop
I never know when you'll return
I'm in love with a robot
In the night I call you up and
Wanna know when you're coming home
Don't deny me, call me back
I'm so alone
In the night I wait up for you
Even though you don't want me to
Go to bed, leave the lights on
What's the use?
So you want to understand me?
You just see what you want to see
There's no way I can help you out
You don't know what it's all about
Fell asleep again in front of MTV
God I'm down at the bottom
No one's singing songs for me
I can't wait for tomorrow
When you're gone and rain starts falling
I just sitting here by the phone
Don't deny me, call me back
I'm so alone
Oh, when you gonna come home?
Oooooh I just gotta know
When you gonna come home?
Oh
Baby I can't stand it when you go to work
You never seem to know when to stop
I never know when you'll return
I'm in love with a robot
In the night I call you up and
Wanna know when you're coming home
Don't deny me, call me back
I'm so alone
10 True to Life (05:50)
When I walk up to your door
When I walk into your room
and open windows
Can you hold it in your hand
Can you make me understand
the tension, the pressure
And I know just it means
to be left out all alone
I got it just like that
I wanna go right back again
I wanna give you everything
Troubled eyes; equipment of my heart
An all-the-time-reflecting-on-why heart
Funny how the gamegot all twisted
Like day and night never existed
Could I be more true to life?
Tell me how did I become
half my real self
Wanna reach and touch the skies
Wanna end the lonely nights
The breathless hours
And I know just what it means
to be left out all alone
I got it just like that
I wanna go right back again
I wanna give you everything
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