Listen to it now and you might beg to differ, but history's current take on The Understanding (Röyksopp's 2005 answer to their relentlessly smiley faced debut) seems to be that it was a misstep. Despite a lead single ("Only This Moment") that foresaw trance's miniature mainstream resurgence and memorable contributions from Karin Driejer (whose "What Else Is There" ranks among Röyksopp's finest songs) and Chelonis R. Jones (whose syncopated "49 Percent" helped eke the Norwegian duo into more credible techno territory), this darker, more textured follow-up stalled at the gate. In retrospect, it was probably done under by both expectation and competition: Not only did The Understanding fail to deliver anything as relentlessly chirpy as early single "Eple" or as friendly and as instantaneous as the Geico Caveman-endorsed "Remind Me", but it was also up against increasingly significant competition from the emergent Scandinavian electro-pop scene.
Junior is Röyksopp's third album in eight years and finds them synthesizing the highs and lows from their previous records to strike a knowing middle ground. While it might be oversimplifying matters to suggest that it splits the difference between the cute, poppy Röyksopp and the darker, techno-friendly Röyksopp, the most satisfying thing about Junior is how convincingly they've bridged that divide. In doing so, they've managed to solve the niggling problems inherent to Melody A.M. and The Understanding-- neither sickly sweet or unsuitably gloomy, Junior is arguably the pair's strongest album.
If you're a production duo like Röyksopp, a lot of your success is dependent upon the singers you surround yourself with, and they've chosen wisely here: In addition to a pair of encore performances from Dreijer, Junior also includes turns from Robyn, Lykke Li, and frequent contributor Anneli Drecker. The high points are pretty much as you'd expect; Driejer does double duty, lending an uncharacteristically creamy falsetto to the disco-inflected workout "This Must Be It" as well as a typically nervy vocal to the double-timed horrorshow piece "Tricky Tricky". Elsewhere, Robyn overdelivers, accounting not only for the best track on the album, but possibly of the year: Influenced in equal parts by Italo disco and "Blue Monday", "The Girl and the Robot" is a frigid, winding bit of electro that combines a powerhouse vocal with some slippery chord changes and one of the biggest choruses of 2009 so far.
Meanwhile, fans of Röyksopp's pop confectionaries needn't look farther than lead single "Happy Up Here", whose dumb, gloopy loop is so infectious that it manages to coast along without the aid of (or need for) any supporting song structure. The pair also hit with "Röyksopp Forever", a starry, string-aided instrumental that starts out sounding like a proggier, second-rate Air before saving itself with a legitimately momentous key change. Some of the other album cuts flirt with downtempo conventions to less flattering outcomes; in fact, if there are any criticisms to be made here, they probably have to do with Röyksopp's tendency to veer into over-produced tastefulness. The worst offender is probably "Silver Cruiser", which exposes the pair's overly finessed production skills and temporarily veers the record into Zero 7/Lemon Jelly/Groove Armada territory. Mostly, though, it's a divide they manage to stay on the right side of; if rumors are true and Junior is in the fact the companion to a slower, more ambient album called Senior due for release later this year, it'll be interesting to see just how long they can keep that up.
