(Wall Of Sound/EMI)

A curious collection of instrumental off-cuts from Norway’s finest

There’s something genuinely magical about Röyksopp – from Only This Moment to Happy Up Here, the duo have the consistent ability to produce tracks that make you sit up and go ‘that’s cool, how did they do that?’ Senior is Röyksopp’s most downbeat album so far – stripped of the usual guest vocalists and twinkling, hands-in-the-air pop hooks, it is a collection of nine relatively sombre instrumental tracks. There’s something a bit disappointing this time around, though, and it isn’t the lower tempo – Melody AM proved how well they could do downbeat – or the lack of flash; it’s that so much of it sounds like a work in progress. Senior was originally intended as a companion piece to last year’s Junior, and probably should have been tacked onto that release as a bonus disc instead. A few of these nine cuts borrow from previously-released material – Tricky Two is an instrumental reworking of Karin Dreijer-Andersson collaboration Tricky Tricky, while Forsaken Cowboy contains elements of several Melody AM tracks – while the rest sound like sketches for fully-formed songs. It’s Röyksopp we’re talking about, so of course they’re beautiful sketches – The Drug, built around a pulsing outer-space synth hook, flirts with trance, and Coming Home is soft and fuzzy and gorgeous. The problem is that, in light of the duo’s previous albums – all three of which are fantastic – Senior is not quite strong enough to stand on its own.

***½

ALASDAIR DUNCAN

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