Röyksopp - The Understanding
Genre - Electronic
Released – July 4, 2005 (UK), July 12, 2005 (US)
Length - 58:40
Publisher – Wall of Sound (UK), Astrelwerks (US)
Now many people may not know who Röyksopp are…. In all basic-ness, you know that Geico commercial?
To my knowledge, this was the US’s introduction to Röyksopp,
although that track is not on this album.
I did hear another track of theirs once on the radio but that was a
local station that some kids ran.
Track list –
Triumphant
Only This Moment
49 Percent
Sombre Detune
Follow My Ruin
Beautiful Day Without You
What Else Is There?
Circuit Breaker
Alpha Male
Someone Like Me
Dead to the World
Tristesse Globale
The Understanding is Röyksopp’s second album and lasts for 12
tracks. For the first half of the disc there
are some smooth tones and mellow beats, and some vocals to keep your attention. It makes for some nice background music,
mellow but enough beat to keep you awake
The gem of this disc is track 7 What Else Is There?. It’s that track that makes you break from
your mellow state and actually listen to it.
With a bigger sound and steady female vocals, this track is worthy of
the mp3 player. It almost has a ‘riding
a lonely train at night’ vibe to it.
After the disc woke you up a bit with that track, it picks
up the pace directly after on track 8… and then slows down a bit again, and
then gets heavy in track 9... and then goes back to mellow until the end.
This disc is a smooth ride with a hill or two in the middle.
Some of these tracks used samples from other things, but I’m
not familiar with them…
“Track 7 contains a
sample from 'Kill Me With Your Love' by Jericho, courtesy of A&M Records, a
sample from 'Love Me The Life I Lead' performed by The Drifters, courtesy of
Bell Records. Track 11 contains a sample from 'Who We Are' written and composed
by Andrew Latimer, performed by Camel, courtesy of Decca Records.”
I’m not going to follow my same score method that I did for
the last disc I reviewed. That thing was
a wild mess that couldn’t be counted as a whole. This, however, can be graded as a whole and I
generally grade discs out of my own feeling.
7.9 out of 10
BONUS! There’s a ‘5’ track
bonus disc! Unlike the first disc, this
one starts off with a bit of a punch and keeps the pace going until it takes a
slower and darker turn until track 5.
But strangely the sneaky buggers added more tracks to this disc. Unlabeled tracks.
Length – 45:54
Track list -
Go Away
Clean Sweep
Boys
Head
Looser Now
Unlabeled Track 6
Unlabeled Track 7 (Only This Moment Redux)
Unlabeled Track 8 (49 Percent Redux)
7.3 out of 10
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