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Quite unlike any other chill out album you're likely to hear, 'Melody AM' takes low rider funk and splices it with 80s synth-pop ambience and analogue dub techniques to create a truly inspiring epic pop landscape which neither strays into questionable light classical territories, nor worrying prog rock terrain.
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But even when hitting on well-worn genre exercises, the duo tweaks its formula in small ways that lead to big returns.
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The music is a spectral combination of bleepy 80s synths, lightly crunching backbeats and dreamy vocals; the mood is pure post-clubbing afterglow, in bed with your loved one, in some snowbound Ikea log cabin.
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Unlike the playgrounds inhabited by those chillout bands--and other post-Air types, for that matter--the rhythms aren’t just here to keep time. Instead, they add texture and purpose, swinging from chunky bass lines to dub soundscapes.
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Röyksopp are, ultimately, too beautiful to hate and too harmless to really love.
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Picking up the ball right about where Air dropped it after Moon Safari, Röyksopp produced one of the most intriguing downbeat albums of the year.
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Royksopp show a debt to art rock, but they replace Pink Floyd's paranoia with a mood of late-night sorrow.
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Melody A.M., sweet dreams are made of bliss.
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Like debuts from Zero 7 and the Avalanches, Melody A.M. is well-situated to sit pretty in many critics' annual top 10s come December.
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Wildly experimental and unique, Melody A.M. belongs in the collections of fans of lush keyboard instrumentation, '70s soul, new age and Boards of Canada-style strangeness alike.
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Unlike most acts who tend to get over-hyped and fall far short of expectations, Norway's Röyksopp does not disappoint.
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Röyksopp is masterful at generating good, mood music.
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Nu electro, crunchy big beat, oddball Irish jigs, Royksopp covers a lot of territory but always with its signature, blissful blend.
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Even when hitting on well-worn genre exercises, the duo tweaks its formula in small ways that lead to big returns.
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Röyksopp is savvy at pulling out the joker in the pack just when the music threatens to become cutesy.
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Alternative PressWhen these Norwegians try to make more conventional haunted soul-diva stuff, it sounds rote by comparison.... But when they follow their own muses, they come up with genius tracks like "Remind Me." [Dec 2002, p.96]
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MixerA work of exquisite, afterparty brilliance. [Oct 2002, p.84]
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Blender[They] channel post-adolescent despair into 10 groove-centric tracks that will gladden anyone who misses Play-era Moby. [#11, p.141]
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Q MagazineWithout a single piece of filler here, this is the musical equivalent of meeting a stranger you feel you've known all your life. [Nov 2001, p.128]
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Urb[The appeal] is in the warm, '70s synths that float melodies into the druggy stratosphere, giving the band's shifty downtempo rhythms and vaguely experimental production a retro-sexy touch. [Nov 2002, p.98]
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Entertainment WeeklySettles into a stream of pastoral, boutique techno that's both soothing and derivative. [1 Nov 2002, p.70]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 43 out of 47
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Mixed: 1 out of 47
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Negative: 3 out of 47
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Jan 29, 2018
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Jun 18, 2012
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josifdAug 10, 2005this is a great album