Track Listing

1. Triumphant
2. Only This Moment
3. 49 Percent
4. Sombre Detune
5. Follow My Ruin
6. Beautiful Day Without You
7. What Else Is There?
8. Circuit Breaker
9. Alpha Male
10. Someone Like Me
11. Dead To The World
12. Tristesse Globale

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3341 in Music
• Released on: 2005-07-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
In 2002, the Norwegian duo of Svein Berge and Torbjorn Brundtland found a sweet spot between wispy Moon Safari-style pop and Boards of Canada-like atmospherics on the widely-admired Melody A.M. The Understanding sounds relatively absent-minded, careening around the room like a panicky fly. Some of it works well; the bouncy "Only This Moment" resembles Fischerspooner at their silliest (and thus, most fun), while "49 Percent" gets a huge lift from a New Jack vocal courtesy of Chelonis R. Jones. But the record is too often thwarted by syrupy synth-pop ("Follow My Ruin") as well as the lack of shifty downtempo rhythms and avant-garde underpinnings that kept Melody so pleasantly grounded. They haven't lost their knack for subtle hooks and well-placed cross-rhythms, like the slippery keyboard squibble that glides its way into "What Else Is There?" But the sophomore curse is hard to overcome, and though there's plenty here to recommend, Berge and Brundtland aren't able to break the spell. NOTE: The limited edition version of the record includes an all-new 5-song B-Side EP. -Matthew Cooke

Pitchforkmedia
8.1 out of 10

Time Out New York
"...the tracks come alive, pulsing with the kind of ecstatic energy rarely produced on our side of the Atlantic."

Customer Reviews

What Else is There?
Melody AM was no doubt one of the best albums of 2002 period. It was an amazing peice of electronic music that went beyond the confines of the genre. It was moody, melodic, and haunting... So, with a masterpeice like Melody AM, where can you go?

Actually, if Roysopp had rested on their laurels and made a Melody AM pt. 2, it would have been better than this contrived peice of electronic dance music. There is absolutely no substance, it is all fluff. The beats all sound the same, and they sound like just about anything you would hear on a standard dance album. It is closer to synth pop than electronica or downbeat music... It is very disapointing.

Out of the 12 tracks, the only ones I really remember is the first track "Triumphant" and the seventh track "What Else is There?" The latter being the only truly memorable song on the disc, and largely in part to the haunting vocals provided by Knife's lead singer Karin Andersson. Her voice is similar to Bjork's styalistically, and adds a very somber and almost mystical tone to the song. This song is no doubt on par with Meldoy AM, but everything else here is so sub-par it makes you wonder if Royksopp can make it back up to the same quality that they once had.

God Bless ~Amy

batting a thousand so far...
I guess I must be batting a thousand right now. It seems that every CD I buy I can't put it down, and this one is no different. I heard "Melody A.M." and I thought it was okay. But after hearing "The Understanding" I realized that we (Royksopp & myself) did in fact have an understanding. They keep making music that I enjoy listening to and I'll keep buying it. Though there are a few songs that I don't jump up and down for (true of all music) this CD is very pleasant to listen to, at home, in the car, or from my LG Voyager phone. I love "Only This Moment", Sombre Detune" and "Follow My Ruin". But my two absolute favorites are "Beautiful Day Without You" and "Someone Like Me" whose lyrics remind me of why I'm still insanely in love with my wife. What are the odds?

Not Melody A.M., but understand it I did!
I'll keep this short, and give a track-by-track later:

The moment I first heard Melody A.M. all the way thru, I cried sweet tears of bliss. Now, album 2 is no Melody, but either way, it rocks my socks. One play of "Follow My Ruin" will wow you. It wowed my English class. ;)

So don't knock this album. You'll groove to it, and that's a given.