Röyksopp are the best musical group to come out of Norway since A-ha (sorry, Turbonegro fans), and they’ve had hit after hit thanks mainly to the use of their songs in commercials. “Epple” was used by Apple, “So Easy” was picked up by T-Mobile for their commercials, and Geico used “Remind Me” in their ads in America. Nothing from Junior has been picked up yet, although it’s hard to see why since it is full of instantly high-energy beats, melodies and incredibly vocal hooks that would go great with the Geico lizard or the Verizon guy. Röyksopp waste no time cutting to the chase with Junior. The album opens with the bouncy beats “Happy Up There,” a great song for sure, but one that is absolutely left in the dust by the following track, “The Girl and the Robot.” Put bluntly, this is a dance track for the ages, one that will go down history as a crowning achievement of what electronic music was capable of in the 00s. It has it all, like some sort of perfect amalgamation of everything great that’s come out of dance music since 1977. Cold electronic synths, acid house style effects, dance-punk energy, it’s all there and all made even better by a dynamite vocal performance by Swedish dance diva Robyn, who delvers the heartfelt lines about a woman in love with…well, a robot (or possibly a workaholic, it’s never made clear) with gut-wrenching intensity. While the rest of the album never matches that level of brilliance, its hard to hold that against it. After all, it’s not really fair to expect more than one earth-shattering work of undeniable genius on a record. A few tracks do come close though, including “Tricky Tricky” which features biting mean vocals by Karin Dreijer Andersson of the Knife, and the dreamy “Miss It So Much” which features vocals by another Swedish seductress, Lykke Li. This is a hell of a dance record, and would easily be the best of the year if it wasn’t for Its Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But being second best to what is so far the album of the year isn’t something to be ashamed of in the least. (Astralwerks 2009)
