Röyksopp – The Understanding

just passing this along: I love when I catch a sample from some old library record and oh is it a good one. Track 5 Follow My Ruin- right off the bat, the intro line is Love De-Luxe (Alan Hackshaw) – Again And Again (1979)_track 1 Here Comes That Sound Again (the intro line to the original track too).

https://www.discogs.com/release/103499-Love-De-Luxe-Again-And-Again

As a huge fan of their first album it’s hard to feel that this is anything like that in originality and delivery, and it’s best not to expect that. I will always love album 1, but it’s nothing like that style, and their style has in some ways evolved for better or for worse in this follow up. Upon hearing this album (of which I have the deluxe edition 2cd with extra tracks), I feel it’s a grower. ‘Only this moment’ is distinctly the duo, as is ‘Sombre Dutune’, ‘Follow my Ruin’, and ‘beautiful day without you’, and ‘what else is there’, with the haunting vocal of Karin Dreiser. But ‘circuit breaker really gets to my heart’. And so, there are certainly familiar warming glimpses of the original royksopp brand, but as a general journey it’s not as captivating as their previous work, however, I have learned to love it - even if that’s kicking and screaming. What does annoy me though is how some tracks are almost rushed, so they just fade out a bit to soon for me. Some new vocalists, more dancy, and more harder beats but I have learned to find it a pleasure to listen in the car on long journeys through the dark and mysterious Scottish highlands, and I have lately really enjoyed mixing with it. Where the first album is one of the greatest electronic albums ever made in my humble opinion, this comes in at around a 8/10 for me. Lastly - I think that the tracks could have been placed better so that it flowed more as that would have been the ultimate for me. And on the bonus cd the first great track ‘Go Away’ would have worked so well on the album itself rather than as a bonus. Just a thought! Enjoy.

The Understanding is the album Röyksopp made to send everyone a message that it was time for a change, and certainly, they were never the same after this album. Four years of waiting brought what was probably their biggest and possibly riskiest bet: delivering an album with plenty of vocal-oriented songs many of which were sang by themselves. That alone was "not-so-Röyksopp" at first glance, yet they managed to remain loyal to their "cold-distant-nordic-thing" style many praised in 2001. Anyone fairly into this duo who remembers what this new thing was like back in 2005, knows what I'm talking about. It felt revolutionary, fresh and absolutely nothing like Melody A.M. and that, sadly, was a huge let down to quite a bunch of folks who 15 years later are still hating on this album. It was a change, after all. Did it still sound Röyksopp? Yes, too. But, put in other words, it's not the sequel to Melody A.M. many people expected.

The Understanding turned out obscure & tragic. It delivers a surprising amount of sadness, nostalgia and a strong feeling of imminent calamity involving falling out of the illusion of love, broken hearts and a soon to happen break-up. And Röyksopp doesn't hesitate one bit to let us know about their intentions, instead, they make a very clear statement with "Only this moment" and shortly after "49 percent". But then we discover Röyksopp *understands* the whole issue as a process in which negative emotions like negation, despair and anger finally lead to a recovery. What they want is to tell us a story with this album as a whole. No happy ever after ending is achieved here, but a mature, down-to-earth, human and real end is shown depicting the way Röyksopp perceives relationships, and The Understanding is their attempt to show us how they view a dying love from a rich number of perspectives making the album simply unique.

The Understanding is, sadly, understimated by those who got to know Röyksopp by their "MTV" sound on Poor Leno and Eple or even the glorious "someone else's" reinvention of Remind me. In fact, no one who has recently discovered Röyksopp or declares to have listened to them can skip this album, it is a must stop and the platform you'll need to stand on to be able to listen and truly appreciate Junior, their masterpiece.

I am really curious if there will be a repress of this LP. Melody AM is still available even this a very old repress...

After the huge success of their debut album Melody AM, Royskopp is back with their stunning followup album "The Understanding". This album is full of slick down-tempo grooves like "Triumphant". There's also quite a few vocals here including the soul-soaked "49 Percent" with it's beautiful flowing basslines and awesome dancey energy. We also have some wicked funk laden rhythm with tunes like "Follow my Ruin". There's also the Bjork-like, commanding and enchanting vocals of Kate Havnevik on "What Else Is There?". "Circuit Breaker" is an upbeat male vocal with intense morphing basslines and massive percussion. But one of the real corkers here is "Alpha Male" which is undeniably, a massive dancefloor anthem with tremendous energy and minblowing climaxes that will have you going mad.
"The Understanding" is full of those haunting keys, warped melodys and ass-shakin grooves that we've come to know and love from this Norwegian duo but they have definitely taken things to another level here. Bottom line. Don't miss this album!