Phoenix

To be honest I had never heard of Phoenix before I stumbled upon this album, so I can’t really comment on what (if any) kind of evolution this album is from previous works. However, I can say that I really enjoyed this album and it’s great from top to bottom. There’s a sense of purpose about the album’s opening salvo of tracks: Liztomania and 1901, in particular, are so well done, so perfectly constructed as to outflank any reservations you might have about the band’s slightly dry approach.

There’s also a nice range of tempos throughout the album, Fences spikes the electro beat of Daft Punk with an urgent acoustic-guitar breakdown for splendidly danceable melancholy. To the near Brit-rocky rave-ups of Lasso.

Love Like A Sunset is a great mellow yet epic, mid-album palate cleanser of almost 7 minutes of pure instrumental.

Everything on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is well constructed and never sounds forced –or over-produced and fussy. Overall it’s a great listen, check it out.

Keep in mind this album is dance music so don’t expect deep thought-provoking intelligent lyrics, the music is the main focus. Sadly you can’t help but notice that a lot of the songs on this album have a near identical sound to them, so about 4 tracks deep into listening you might find yourself feeling like this whole album is just one long techno track.

There are a few tracks where they dial it down; Heartbreaker featuring R&B star John Legend who has a great voice, but the song itself is a little stale. Ghostface Killah is featured on the track Word Up, but you feel like his lyrical talents are somewhat wasted as he has no verses; they simply play samples of him shouting things like “word up”, “do it hard” and “this is how you do it”.

Some tracks I actually enjoyed were the opening track It Ain’t Love. Also Bounce, 1000 Cigarettes; and Click Click featuring a great appearance by rapper E-40. Is this album innovative or groundbreaking? No. However MSTRKRFT is still in a league of their own within the genre and there are some good songs on this album. It’s worth checking out.

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.