Blue Brain

Junior is the 3rd studio album from Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp. The word Röyksopp is a stylized version of the Norwegian word for the puffball mushroom, “røyksopp” or literally, “smoke mushroom”. This is their first album release for the year. The group plans to follow up “Junior” with “Senior” which is slated for release in the latter-half of 2009.

I first discovered Röyksopp when the HBO series Entourage featured a remixed version of their song “What Else Is There”. Junior has been described as a mix between the styles of the two previous studio albums, Melody A.M. and The Understanding.

Junior has a unique sound; the 11 track album display a variety of moods and wide range in tempos. The tracks I enjoyed the most are the following:

“Happy Up There” the first single, a great upbeat song with a “summertime” vibe to it.

“The Girl and The Robot” is the second single, an up-tempo song featuring vocals from Swedish singer Robyn.

“Vision One” very gritty electronic beats & great vocals from Norwegian singer Anneli Drecker.

“Miss It So Much” an electropop lullaby with very soft lyrics by Swedish indie-rocker Lykke Li.

The bottom line is if you’re a fan of electronic music you will no doubt find something you like on this album. I find I can listen to this album top to bottom only skipping a couple tracks. Check this one out, it’s a great listen.

For more information on Röyksopp visit their official website.