Crikey it's nearly the end of February and yet only now are we getting round to reviewing the Royksopp album. It's poor, I know, But wait, it gets worse. Some members of the IRB haven't bothered to write their reviews yet, even after all this time. Shocking. A thorough thrashing with the Daily Mail is the only answer. One suggestion is that the album is a little on the bland side and thus some of us found it hard to summon the creative energy to write about it. One of our correspondents Ian, didn't actually write about it...but submitted a review of...errr something! Enjoy.
Roksopp - Melody AM.
Ian F
Please
excuse the partial disregard I am about to show for this music club’s aims and
values. However, as we strive for an
honesty and true evaluation of the music presented to us we can only write what
we truly feel and, unfortunately, during a month when I should have been
listening to the Soppers called Royk frequently I instead rediscovered the
primal urge and splurge of the Stooges.
The rare, raw, vitality of that groups debut platter got me hooked up and
strung out all over again. I was sixteen
once more. I couldn’t stop playing their
seminal first record. I’m older,
possible wiser, and hopefully more cultured than in times past when I
frequently became addicted to certain bands, or certain sounds. But, just as in
those hedonistic times of yore - many full moons, and a lot of howling ago,
when Iggy first punctured my senses - I got excited all over (and all over)
again. The years haven’t dulled the pure
power of ‘The Stooges’. They command and demand you listen. So, I did.
Its energy was inspirational, and forty years on still is.
To be
honest with you I played Stooge music over and over and over again because I wanted
to. I didn’t want to play ‘Melody A.M.’ Yet, for you dear readers (are there any
readers out there?) and my fellow club critics I have made some sort of effort,
and while I would rather prattle on about the guy they call the Iggster, honey,
I will instead divert my auditory attention and subsequent penmanship to
Roysopps’ not unlistenable music.
Iggy and
his Stooges weren’t musicians and they certainly weren’t clever lyrically (“Last year I was twenty one / I didn’t have a
lot of fun/ now I’m gonna be twenty two / I say ‘oh my’ and ‘boo-hoo’.” Is either
the greatest or most puerile couplet in rock?) but you get off on the energy
and the feel. The same could probably be
argued in favour of the the less than rocky Royksters producing a certain feel
that sustains constant listens. Also, Stooges
could hardly string two notes together and it could be argued – not necessarily
by me, but stick with it, will ya - that twiddling a few knobs and utilizing
auto-tune does not proficient musicians make.
Royksopps don’t write lyrics or not many so, perhaps, 43 years after ‘The Stooges’ is ‘Melody
AM’ it’s natural DIY consequence. Perhaps.
Well,
perhaps not. Stooges couldn’t play but
made the only music they could because they wanted to. They had fun doing it. Royksopp and a plethora of bands, over the
last two decades especially, make music because they want to be rich, be famous
and / or critically appraised. Royksopp
don’t seem to be doing this music thang
for the pure passion of performing.
They are from the new(ish) pop intake who make experimental music (now
conventional) that fits with the guidelines laid down for success. With Royksopp, and their breed, as far as
reaching out and affecting people it seems Skypes the limit.
It’s not
that music made for the masses, or for tragically hip trendy middle mass majorities,
can’t be fun and enjoyable. It doesn’t mean
it has to be sans credibility. The kind
of easy listening evidenced on ‘Melody AM’
has it’s place. I like the Carpenters as
much as the next in-denial, grown-up and still groovin’, post punk adolescent,
but for musical satisfaction I sometimes just want some two note guitar caterwauling
to fuck it’s way outta the mix and into my ears, or for a singer to try to free
himself from lumpen emptiness of his existence, slashing through the niceties, to
scream that he wants to be my dog! Those
sort ofsounds on this CD would have stirred me from a tranquilised by
technology abstraction and made me want to play Royksopp some more.
Instead
this album reminded me of my school days, well, in fact my school holidays. This as you may well know was back in the
days before digital and day-time telly.
In that long lost past, when me and the majority of fellow reviewers,
were larky lads and Bowie
was a boy, there used to be what they called Trade Test Transmissions. The Test Card as it was better known. There was a girl at her blackboard and in the
background while customers in shops browsed new televisions nice music played
continuously for the TV’s displayed. The
music was inoffensive and was chosen so it wouldn’t distract from the sharp
picture, lines and colours on the screen.
That music sounded every bit like ‘Melody
AM.’
So, are
Royksopp merely the new James Last? I’m
not sure whether I look on my experience of listening to this album as relaxing
or soporific. I have the feeling that if
my Iugs hadn’t still been yearning the sandpapering ‘The Stooges’ had been applying recently while I tried to pay
attention to ‘Melody AM’ I would have
said the former. Now, having thought
about this, after just writing the above , I’m not sure. I do believe that if I hadn’t been reviewing
this album and therefore thinking about what I would be writing it is possible
that the album would have sent me to sleep.
That is
not to say I was bored. I wasn’t. Royksopp is not boring. Well, not totally. ‘M A.M.’ is an album that does what it is
supposed to do. It makes me feel laid back, happy and carefree. Well, I think
it does. As is now obvious to you I’m
undecided about this album, and as I’ve mentioned previously this is music that
has a place it’s just not that its’ place is not at my dirty, stained, and
Stooge encrusted table.
Yet,
just as sulphates and phetamines encouraged my head first lunge into the
Stooges maelstrom first time around I’m sure a contemporary stimulants of
choice would enhance my appreciation of Roy.
k. Sopp and his band. We all need
something to hang our hats on. You probably need the right drug, the right mood
or to be in the right place at the right time with the right person to benefit
from for ‘Melody AM’.
It’s
either that or the summer! I believe the
sun rather than the recent snow would have increased my enjoyment. While listening I kept on imagining sun,
sand, and a deep blue sea when listening.
I was imagining me and sexy girl, thighs entwined with mine, on a white
sand beach, with only the deep blue ocean for company, no one else in sight
just us and Melody AM playing and me poised, panting at her portals…. but, I digress again. In fact I seem to have been digressing all
over the place….
Melody
AM can be fun. It can be enjoyable and
there’s more happening than you notice on first listens. It isn’t ‘The
Stooges’. Instead there’s happy,
sweeping melodies. There’s also the synthesized
sax that comes in, and then takes over on ‘She’s So’, that attracts the ear,
and there’s the whispers and vocalised moans that are subtly introduced at
other moments. At times funky beats
threaten to take over but don’t unfortunately, instead they remain in their
place, well contained, and user friendly.
In the
end just as Like ‘Ane’ on ‘The Stooges’ the track ‘Royksopp’s Night Out’ explains much. There’s a distinct change of pace. The Royksters almost rock out on this
one. They almost get down and
dirty. They at last seemed prepared to give
it some welly and break free of their constraints but then do so only in a
playful way and definitely within their self defined limits.
For me
the problem with this album apart from it not being Iggy is as I tried to outline
at the beginning of this piece is that there are a lot of reasons I should not
like this record, and another load of reasons why I haven’t enjoyed as much as it
appears others have. So, I could carry
on knocking ‘Melody AM’ until it tumbles and falls but in the end it is an
album I have quite liked. It’s an album
that has remained in my collection for quite a few years now just waiting for
that moment that might be right to play it.
That moment hasn’t been over the last month. So, in the meantime, while we wait, just leave
me to James Osterberg with his opening gambit, “Alright! It’s 1969 OK, all across the USA, Another
year for me and you, another year with nothing to do!”
68/100 Andy DI
picked this album because, some years ago, I’d somehow loaded So Easy
onto my iPod. I don’t remember how or why; but the shuffle function delivered
it to me a few months ago, and having not heard it for years, I remembered how
much I used to like it.
Brilliant:
that was the record club album sorted.
It’s
not a genre of music I ordinarily gravitate towards – mainly because it’s
usually a bit crap. The scope for pretentious, self-indulgent bobbins within
ambient/trip-hop/whatever is virtually limitless, with all irritation that can
cause. But if it was all like this, maybe I’d like the whole genre a bit more.
Straight
away it launches into So Easy, and that song establishes a running theme
of slow, downtempo beats, a dreamy layer of synth on top and lyrics that can
never quite be discerned, but which always seem to fit. What IS being said in So
Easy? I’ve never worked it out. I don’t think you’re supposed to.
Throughout,
a whiff of slight navelgazing pervades (Sparks is a notable example);
while In Space oddly reminded me of Children by Robert Miles, one
of my favourite ever tracks – the main difference being that In Space
fails to hit those heights and is the album’s first real dud. There’s
occasional levity, with Poor Leno featuring more ethereal lyrics but
being studded by what sounds strangely like steel drums – perhaps the last
thing I expected to hear, but it works beautifully.
It
rarely labours, as so many albums do. The instrumental-only Röyksopp’s Night
Out introduces the first hint of urgency as the album nears its end, before
the simply gorgeous Remind Me, featuring – really – identifiable lyrics,
which is a sudden, strange and clever surprise.
She’s
So
tries to be clever in a different way, providing an aching sax interlude – I
liked the idea more than the execution. Fitting, perhaps, to end with the
quirkiest track of all: the fragmented, troubled 40 Years Back. It makes
no sense. Not all of this album does, but every listen unearths something new,
and despite its downbeat nature, it lifts the spirits on each occasion. A
simply beautiful album.
88/100 Tony DA
Norwegian band, hmmm death metal.
Unfortunately not. Although that was a bit hopeful on my part.
So to
the music, and straight into track 1.
So
Easy- the opener is instantly recognisable. It was used by T-Mobile for some
ads and also on channel 4 for bits and pieces.
I like this song, it has a haunting background coupled with a great
bass-line. A great opener that chugs
along and gives you a great uplifting feeling. You find after perhaps
only as many as 2 plays you are humming along with a warm glow.
Eple-
continues both the themes of jollification and tv ads. This track being used by
Apple. It's an electronic foot tapper.
Sparks-sees
the mood slow down with the first real use of vocals. The strong bass sound
keeps the song rolling along and the strange, almost distant vocals keep you
hooked.
In
Space- Has a slow start before what will become the obligatory boppy electro nondescript drivel.
Poor
Leno- Sees the tempo step up, and for me one of the stand out tracks finding me
wanting to sing along. The vocals just seem to roll off the tongue and it has
you humming.
A
higher place- starts with the feel of
"once in a lifetime" by talking heads, before again drifting
into oblivion with some strangely haunting vocal sounds.
Royksopp's
night out- has an electro western movie type sound to it. You can just see the
cowboys riding into town on their horses to this tune. 7 minutes though!?
Remind
me- is another track that was used in an advert. For an insurance company I
think. It's a song that is not un pleasing on the ear.
She's
so- starts off with a saxophone, or at least an electronic version of one, and
sounds like it could be used for some seedy scene in a movie. Then that all too
familiar drum machine comes in to give it "that" feel again.
40
years back/come- Reminded me a little of the opening track "so easy".
Then it just drifts into nothing ness, and so ends the album.
On
the whole this is probably an easy to forget album.
It
reminds me of the sort of music that you would come across being played in the supermarket,
or in perhaps a lift. Not an album I will really go back to.
45/100
Kev B
After
listening to the album several times over it became infectious mainly due to
the diversity of the tunes played out by the Norwegian pair making it pleasant on
the ear drums. Not an instant success and consigned at first to a lazy
Sunday afternoon but as stated earlier most of the tracks won me
over due
to variety in the use of keyboard electronics and the synthesisers.
So Easy
and Eple are classic examples of easy listening with a fine beat and good use
of the electronic keyboard. In Sparks there was a distinct lack of ! This
was one of the tracks I was disappointed with describing it as lacking
character .
In Space
picks up the tempo building up to my favourite track which is Poor Leno ,
this track is a fast paced dance track pouring energy and one to bounce along
in the car to.
This
debut album by the Norwegian pair returned to the down beat tempo with A
Higher Place and Royksopp s Night Out.
Overall
an album to chill to whilst enjoying the various tempos.
60/100
So....despite the apparent lack of interest Melody AM still scored a respectable average of 65.(or 43 if the assumption is our 2 correspondents who couldn't be arsed scored it zero!)
Anyway, there is good news afoot. Tony D has chosen the next month's album...and it is No More Heroes by The Stranglers. Something to really get our teeth into I am sure you will agree. Reviews will be in...sometime. We hope.
