I was quite excited when i first heard ‘Only This Moment’ for the first time about 3 years ago, and i was very impressed by how Röyksopp diversified their sound in ‘The Understanding’ which I had on constant repeat all of the summer that it came out.

So having finally got my mortal hands on the promo of Junior (released on 23rd March 2009), I was eagerly waiting a new, fresh Röyksopp sound.  I have heard a couple of radio plays of the track ‘Happy Up Here’ which seems to retain the original bubbly sound of their early work, whilst bringing a new sense of quality.  The track has the power to transform you from any mood into an uplifting spirit, and put a great big smile on your face.  Its like ‘eple’ Part 2, but better.  This track will be the one you hear of chill out compilations in ten years time.  What a great opening track for the album!

Most modern artists seem to bring their strongest material towards the front of the album and there is no exception here.  ‘The Girl and Robot’ features Swedish vocalist Robyn, a great artist to include on your album if you want to improve sales…!  She has huge success in the UK over the past 2 years, and her trademark moody vocals in this track are aparent, making this a commercial winner.

There are some other upbeat tracks – ‘This must be it’ and ‘Tricky Tricky’, which has a great rolling acid bass-line, but for me its spoiled by the frankly poor lyric writing.  Its almost as if the lyrics were written in a rush, so that a female vocalist could appear on the track.  it has a got a great reprise bit at the end though.

The other track worthy of a mention is ‘Röyksopp Forever’.  This starts out as a mellow instrumental piece, that soon into something resembling a dramatic film score, with some fantastic percussion.

An initial scan of the album might suggest that they have run out of ideas here, but when you give it a chance they have worked hard to produce something of quality.  And there is enough variation to keep your attention throughout your listening experience.  The interesting thing is that it does seem to be a mix of “early Röyksopp” for the ambient and downbeat tracks and “new Röyksopp” for the upbeat tracks – but nothing groundbreaking.  They played it safe.

Rating (out of 5): 3