#royksopp

röyksopp (acclaimed & iconic norwegian electropop synth artists, my beloveds) put out an album in 2009 called “Junior”. it’s a delight. it’s bright and optimistic, it’s uptempo even when it’s sad or conflicted, there’s a deep sense of drive and a pull towards the future. the duo brings in like half a dozen collaborating artists on lead vocals (robyn! karin dreijer!) and the result is so profoundly vibrant.

this is the julian album. this is the julian-as-he-projects-himself-outwardly album. julian surrounded by friends and moving too fast to think twice about what’s happening internally. julian while he’s still young and golden and nothing’s crashed down around him.

then in 2010, röyksopp releases “Senior” as a direct counterpart to Junior. it’s their only all-instrumental no-vocals album, and the tone has shifted. Senior is downtempo and sparse, it’s ambient and contemplative and dissonant even if the melody stays uncannily warm.

the sense of deep sadness and isolation in these instrumental tracks is so on the nose for garak it’s a little wild. tracks with names like “the drug” and “the alcoholic”. the empty stretching synth pads of “a long, long way” sounds like what the station must’ve felt like the first night after every other cardassian left.

It’s not a strict binary ofc, shades of both are in both albums, but the contrast between youth and experience, between unabashed optimism and tired reticence….. it’s sustaining me.

Top row is all Röyksopp, from left to right, Melody A.M., The Understanding, Junior, and the Profound Mysteries trilogy

Bottom row from left to right is Now That's What I Call Music! 27 and 40, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace soundtrack, Gorillaz's Demon Days, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and Unkle's The Road: Part 2