Let's face it: 2002 is the year of the dull electronic album. Ventures in ambient, less head-pounding and generally meathead pulse have led to the emergence of the so-called "chill out" album, the post-club downer to provoke profundity and eventually lull the listener into a sonically induced dream.
Chill out is, of course, not a bad thing, and many bands have done it incredible justice in years past, but the genre as a whole typically has provided an outlet for substandard electronic outfits to pass off doldrums as depth. 2002 has been marvelous in displaying these lifeless groups for all that they're worth, which has of course proven to be very little.
Maybe the difference in Röyksopp's "Melody A.M.," the debut album from Norwegian duo Torbjorn Brundtland and Svein Berge, is the fact that it's an edgier ambience, incorporating a fascinating array of vocals and nostalgia. Maybe the difference is that, unlike most of the other electronic albums of the year, this isn't from France or England. Or maybe the difference is that, technically, the album was released in 2001.
Whichever way you justify the album's emergence on the bleak electronic scene of the moment, the truth simply is that "Melody A.M" is not just brilliant, but that it emits, radiates, absolutely glows with brilliance.
Brilliant might be a bit of a misnomer -- not that the album is any less profound, but that it exudes no warmth, an icy chill pervading the inner workings of each track instead. It's all very Scandinavian in feel, far surpassing "chilling out" and going more into the realm of plummeting somewhere in the middle of the tundra in mid-January.
Things get off to an ironic and somehow eerie start with "So Easy," which samples the Burt Bacharach-penned "Blue on Blue." The retro lilt of the sample glides under the surface of a more metallic but breezy synth and beat combo. "Eple" follows, a synth-pop number welded together with blips and bleeps of liquid texture. It maintains a vaguely retro sound but simultaneously keeps its progressivism. "So Easy" and "Eple" are a one-two punch that provides a fantastic preface to even more paradoxical creations to follow.
What truly defines "Melody A.M" is the overall sense of bliss that suffuses its tracks without sacrificing their integrity. True, unadulterated bliss in pop and electronic music is normally associated with songs such as those pop gems "Barbie Girl" or "Blue (Da Ba Dee)," but Röyksopp resist the push toward carelessness and successfully maintain the quality of the music.
Although moments of the album show Röyksopp's debt to art rock, "Melody A.M." does not suffer for its lack of a mournful or angry track. Even "She's So," an intensely sensual fusion of sax and piano with more standard Röyksopp fare, maintains a certain playfulness amid its sexual energy. While no song on the album even touches the level of mediocrity, "She's So" is arguably the weakest, simply because its carnal nature doesn't entirely mesh with the rest of the album.
One of the strongest tracks on the album is "Sparks," which features the vocals of Anneli Drecker, the Norwegian answer for Beth Hirsch. Even the Portishead-like trappings of this breathy, downbeat piece fail to lose the hope and optimism of the album as a whole.
"Sparks" comes second only to "40 Years Back/Come," the prolific closing track. It twirls and thuds, beeps and tingles, only to close in a series of slow waves of sound. The minimalist lack of fussiness in it all forms a provocative closure to the swirl of sound the listener has just experienced.
"Melody A.M." is not only an astounding listening experience, but in itself gives meaning to an entire genre of electronic music; although the question now lies in where such a cheerful ambience belongs in the scope of music, the answer undoubtedly will surface that Röyksopp has created a niche for others to follow. For the time being, Röyksopp remains a duo whose music is as intriguing as its name.
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