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Röyksopp’s third album begins with a giggle, which is a fitting
intro for a band whose mission statement this time around is “to share
our music and shed some light in an otherwise bleak reality.” All it
takes are the opening chords of the ebullient single “Happy Up Here” to
accomplish that goal. The Norwegian duo — best known in America
for “Remind Me,” which was used in those Geico caveman commercials
— has definitely upped the club-going ante this time. “The Girl
and the Robot,” which features Swedish pop sensation Robyn, is the
first of many clubby cuts to feature guest vocals from fellow
Scandinavians.
Anneli Drecker sings on the slinky “Vision One,” the spacious “True
to Life” and the soothing “You Don’t Have a Clue.” The Knife’s Karin
Dreijer Andersson puts in great guest turns on “This Must Be It” and
“Tricky Tricky.” (The former sounds like a gussied-up tune from
Andersson’s own band.) Lykke Li rounds out the guest-vocal cameos on
the meaty electronica track “Miss It So Much,” which sort of occupies
the space that Air once did. The remaining cus lean toward the kind of
ambient stuff that Röyksopp still does well. There’s nothing on
Junior that’s quite as much of an earworm as “Remind Me,” but
it’s still a solid slice of Scandinavian electro -pop.
— Jeremy Willets
This article appears in Apr 1-7, 2009.
