Melody A.M.
Röyksopp
2001
Album Summary
Melody A.M. is the debut studio album by Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp. It was released on 3 September 2001 by Wall of Sound. As of 2005, the album had sold 750,000 copies worldwide, with 454,271 sold in the United Kingdom alone.
WikipediaExperience being on hold with a modernist Scandanavian cell phone company, or watching a low energy Dr. Who chase scene, or perhaps a languid dialogue-free hand job video from a dubious "educational" VHS ordered from the back of a magazine... Is this where all these electronica tropes got invented? A fair bit of variety, but then a fair bit of monotony within individual songs.
While I dont dislike this, never hearing it wouldn't be one of my life's regrets.
This was my favourite album in college. It is like a time travel machine, immediately bringing me back to that time, the people and memories. Some bands and albums have lasted the test of time and I have listened to my whole life, and some serve a purpose for a time, and this was the latter. Listening back again though, its a great album, great melodies and 00s synthy beats, maybe even a hint of norwegian disco. I think it got overplayed and used too much in ads, but after a break, it still holds up.
AppleMusic says this album is dance music. I disagree. I think it’s electronic music to somewhat turn your brain off and enjoy the mood. This album is Brian Eno (the airport one) to me, but actually interesting. I listened several times, partly because I couldn’t get through the whole thing at once. I thoroughly enjoyed it more each time. A good find.
There aren't enough words in the English language to truly express how I feel about this album, all the different emotions it elicits in me, how Sparks still makes me cry without fail. It's such a work of art, no track without reason, everything just beautifully in place. I adore this album and every single memory I have associated with it and its tracks. Just superb.
This is a surprisingly good electronic album. I know it's basic to compare electronic bands to Moby but this album really reminds me of peak Moby. It's got a great down-tempo vibe, killer trip-hop groves, the vocals are sparse and textural, and the whole thing just oozes sophistication. You can tell these guys care deeply about making sure that everything is perfect and balanced. The attention to detail is astounding. This album is a whole feeling and I'm here for it.
It's an OK album with some interesting tracks but nothing too good. You can put it in the background and just forget about it.
Boring beep boop music. I'm never going to think about listening to this album again. I wish the entire album sounded like the first two songs - they generally get more and more boring as time goes on. I don't know if that's just my ears going numb or actually the music's fault but I don't give enough crap to go and listen again to make sure.
This was a pleasant surprise. Awesome downtempo dance music with some very unique sounds. Will definitely go back to it for background music.
Evocative, and very pretty. Some great subtle textures. She's So is gorgeous and warm and is a nice cuddle.
Royksopp are Norwegian according to wiki. Norway is fucking cold. So its fucking remarkable that they manage to create quite such a summery vibe here! Chilled out Dance music with soul. not my Genre but a very pleasant listen. Press play and hear the snow begin to melt. 4/5
I liked Eple when I first heard it. It’s one of my favourite songs to whistle. Fifty years ago, in an era when catchy instrumentals (like Hot Buttered Popcorn or Outta-Space) could become pop hits, I’m sure Eple would have made the charts. “So Easy” is interesting but they wear out the Burt Baccarat sample, though they elected to sample a version by a Swedish 60s pop-band, which probably saved them $$$. There are a number of well written tracks on the album and a couple are more forgettable rhythm or ambience based, typical of a lot of 90s downtempo. To quote one reviewer: “<Royksopp> combines the haunted atmospheres of Boards of Canada with the more traditional "song writing" sensibility of downbeat specialists like Groove Armada or Koop". With any musical genre, to me, it’s all about the song writing in the end. Boards of Canada got thumbs down from me due to a dearth of song writing, while I like the CDs I have by Groove Armada and Koop – and Royksopp.
Awesome, loads of memories around this one. First saw the video to Remind Me early in the morning at Rachel’s flat down in London. Sparks was part of my chill out AV set for Shinobi at Welly. And the album as a whole takes me back to Jodie’s house down Morpeth st. The album stands up well, maybe tails off a little at the end?
Dayuuuuum I know this tune "Eple", so it came from THIS album! I think I enjoyed this album the most out of all the others.
Fucking amazing. The perfect house album. Great top to bottom. Super revolutionary.
Honestly A Great Album, Dynamic But Still Static, It's Weird. I'm Writing At The Moment.
пиздеееееец..... ахуено это просто ахуено нужно послушать чтобы понять французы умеют электронщину делать, особенно вайбовую
Really liking this. It's hitting all the right spots for me. I can work to this and likely will often.
wow. loved it. had heard of the band before but never really listened. great house sound
Nice electronic music album, I really liked it. Saved tracks: So Easy, Roykskopp's Night Out, Remind Me, She's So, 40 Years Back / Come
I had heard of this artist before but had never listened to anything of theirs (except maybe snippets). Still pleasantly surprised. This was chill work music, and I did enjoy it.
catchy ephemeral downtempo lounge beats. A familiar and nostalgic album for me, but it's aged well. 4/5
wow echt van genoten! zeer cool met headphone. Zeker iets wat ik nog ga opzetten.
6/10 not my style, but still good. Very good while working and also good spotify radio with it
This is weirdly chill. Kinda reminds me of Blank and Jones and in a good way. I like it.
I don’t seek it out, but like it when I listen to it. Nice chill club or after party music.
Pretty damn good! Will chill to that stuff at some point. Also, "40 Years Come" gave me BOTH Blur AND Earthbound vibes, which is phenomenal.
I liked this one. I already knew 'Remind Me,' but I didn't know any of the other songs. Very good background ambient music, but unfortunately no real stand out songs other than Remind Me.
Good electronic music. Perfect to put on and zone out (and I mean that as a good thing.)
I loved this. Perfect music to work to in my opinion. Listened to it twice.
I'd forgotten how much I love this album and artist in general. A nice reminder and nudge to listen again!
easy listening, def hear some daft punk influence but may be tripping poor leno was not a hit with sarah
This was pretty good. There are similar albums that I would give 5 stars without hesitation, but this one is just a little bit too loungy for me to give it full marks.
This album was hyped a lot around its release date. Great album overall but perhaps a bit too loungy for me and some of the vocal tracks are so so.. and perhaps not everyone will agree but: just listen to the Mandy remix of "Sparks" how much the album could have been further improved if they had upped the electro bits.
Remember when this hit in the pre streaming days and so was a bit harder to just give a listen without buying it. Listening to a few tracks in the CD shop didn't do it justice as I feel it needs a few solid sessions before it becomes ingrained. I didn't 'get it' back then but it has become a stable that I return to quite often nowadays. sits somewhere between a 3 and 4 for me listened to is on a plane just last week
Хороший альбом. Чувствуется гармония между обычными инструментами и вокалом, музыканты использовали вокал только там, где это необходимо. Возникло ощущение, что альбом был очень своевременным и современным по звучанию. Мне понравилось.
Didn't recognize the name, but ended up recognizing a couple of the songs. I realized at the end that I didn't closely listen to the album since I had it on while I was working, but it did set a nice mood for doing said work. Will probably bookmark this one and play it as work music again.
interesting electronic music. "She's So" is very reminiscent of Vangelis and Pink Floyd
I'm sucker for this sort of downtempo chillout post-club electronica, and I liked this album when it first came out. Fave track - "So Easy" and "Eple" are both pretty iconic. Love the guitar trill in "A Higher Place" too...
Very enjoyable. And very early 2000s. It feels nostalgic even though I can't remember any of this being played, since I was born 2 months after the release, but it feels familiar. 4
Such a fun, yet relaxing listen. Not a single "bad" song, just some are better than others. I'd happily add this to my collection.
Det är så bra! Mycket bättre och low key än junior, som även om det är fint, är det lite väl glättrigt ibland.
i liked some of this, but i shouldn't have tried to listen at work - more of a put on your headphones and zone out album.
I tend to find Röyksopp‘a music a bit of a hit or miss affair (including their very latest 2022 release). However, this one is definitely a hit, and Eple is one of those hits that transcend time.
This album has a pretty eclectic mix of sounds and styles. There’s some experimental stuff and also some more pop-friendly (even clubby) jams (like “Poor Leno”). Some are in between like “Eple,” which has those weird little off-key notes in its hook. There’s also some chill, blippy-bloopy electronica (like “Remind Me,” “A Higher Place,” and the spacey “In Space”) and even some jazzy numbers (“She’s So”). This is an album worth listening to closely but it can also slip into the background for hangouts, smoking, studying, or writing. There’s a newer electronic artist I like called Caribou that a lot of these songs remind me of. No question Caribou counts Röyksopp as an influence. Cool to hear that connection! Also “Sparks” sounds like Portishead! Highlights: “So Easy,” “Eple,” “Poor Leno”
A pretty enjoyable electronic, samply, disco, trip-hop album, but I think some ideas run thin over the runtimes in their respective songs. Other than the highlights, I don't see myself coming back to this album as it feels pretty average. Although, I really do like Royksopp's Night Out. Highlights: 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8.
Completely forgot to rate this one so I’ve kinda forgotten everything about it but I remember liking it a good amount
Para estar clasificado como Dance, este disco de hecho me pareció muy agradable. Momentos bailables, sí, pero también a raro un algo melódico que lo hace entretenido y alcanza la 4ª estrella.
Hörte Mbw C. damals™️. Mochte ich, besonders natürlich Eile, aber nie mit beschäftigt. Warum eigentlich nicht? Schlechte 4.
This is my go-to vibe. I was not familiar with Röyksopp prior to this listen but I definitely got into this type of jam in the early 2000s with Groove Armada, Air, Different Gear.
I went into this blind, not knowing anything about the band, only having seen the name. I was surprised that I knew the first two tracks, though I'm not sure how. I'm not all that knowledgeable about electronic music, but I really dug this album, start to finish. Very organic, bubbly sounds. Nice melodies. Sounds like a sunrise, which has nothing to do with the album cover art. Good music to work to. 3.5 stars, but let's bump it up to 4.
Gostei muito! Não conhecia e adorei. Achei bem bom pra usar como som ambiente, ótimo para fazer atividade física, se alongar e usar em ensaio. Melhor música: Sparks
Like wet Tacos on a moonlight patio. Smooth, sultry, suductive fruit smoothie with a splash of MDMA.
An album I am quite familiar with. So many strong tracks on here and this album was quite influential in its time. Worth a relisten.
Easy listening, lot of grooves and bops, chill and relaxing. Lovely to listen to. Lives up to it's album name!
THIS IS WHERE POOR LENO CAME FROM my heart is happy Pretty fun album! Interesting melodies and synth beats, kinda reminds me of Entroducing and early Daft Punk (Homework/Discovery). 4/5 cause it brought me back to SSX3. Miss that game.
The geico cavemen commercial! This album was really fun even without that song
I'd definitely heard of this group before (and I obviously knew the song from the Geico commercial), but I'd never actually listened to any of their stuff. Honestly, it's exactly the kind of downtempo electronic music I need when I'm trying to do something that requires me to have music on, but not be distracted. Will definitely revisit this one later. Standouts: So Easy, Eple, Royksopp's Night Out
Erland Oye, the singer on this album is a musical genius. The song Remind Me is a huge earworm from the early 2000s due to Geico caveman commercials and I still love it to this day.
Anyone who enjoys electronic should listen to this album. Any younger person who enjoys the Lofi genre should listen to this album
Enjoyable, relaxing. Some songs too much on the relaxing scale though.
Dang, another cool album, I'd say we're off to a great start this week. I think I've seen or heard this name before, but never their music. I really like it though, it's funky and electronic, but with some more concrete song structure than the usual house/EDM fare. In some ways it feels like a precursor to stuff like UMO, Tame Impala, and/or the Avalanches (though this actually came after that one Avalanches album)--alternative style music with a lot of electronic style and instrumentation. I really dig it, and I hope we get more from Royksopp if it sounds like this! Favorite tracks: So Easy, Eple, 40 Years Come Back. Album art: A really cool cloud shot. Nothing too crazy, but it's nice to look at. 4/5
Oh come on. I'm starting to think that nobody at Cro Metrics likes music. If you can't at least vibe to "Eple" or "Royksopp's Night Out" you are terminally uncool
Not usually a fan of chill out type albums but thought that was really good.
For its time it seemed like a revolutionary, wii menu, nonsensical low fi soft feel good melodies. I enjoyed it, I, living in the future, have heard it’s influences for years now though.
- First listen - This is the kind of thing I want from this website, good albums from genres I probably wouldn't listen to - More than nice background music - Fav songs: Remind Me, Eple, Poor Leno
Great album. Used to listen to it all the time, probably haven't listened to it in 10+ years. Still good!
No conocía este grupo y me ha parecido interesante. Electrónica europea con más ritmo que IDM y con un sonido que me ha recordado a Télépopmusik. "Eple" o "Poor Leno" como muestra de lo que puedes encontrar. Remind Me también es bastante bonita.
A moody, poky sampler- knew a few songs and enjoyed ‘Remind Me’ the most.
Some amazing tracks but not as strong over all as I remember it. Did make me want to re-visit their back catalogue though.
An enjoyable album that flows nicely between early 2000s house and chill out. The big singles off the album haven’t aged particularly well as I find them somewhat irritating, but there is so much more to this album that that.
AVR. 6.8 TOP 3: 1. Sparks (+8) 2. Poor Leno (+7.7) 3. She's So (+7.5) TRACKLIST 1. So Easy (+6.5) 2. Eple (+6) 3. Sparks (+8) 4. In Space (+5.8) 5. Poor Leno (+7.7) 6. A Higher Place (+6.4) 7. Röyksopp's Night Out (+7.4) 8. Remind Me (+7.2) 9. She's So (+7.5) 10. 40 Years Back/Come (+5.9)
Electro, c’est special mais smooth et ca s’ecoute bien en travaillant. 3.5
A brilliant opening 1-2, both of which take me back to the 'chillout' trend of the early noughties, as the whole album does. It drops off significantly after that - not bad (with the exception of Poor Leno, which sounded dumb at the time, and now sounds dated and dumb) but not GOAT standard by any stretch. Nice enough, and with a clear love of Philly Soul and such.
3 stars. Great music to have on in the background, but I can’t actively listen to it
It is all electronic sound. I am not sure I needed to hear this album. It was just alright.
Melody AM is a look into the world of chilled out house music. Lovely to listen to whilst relaxing on an afternoon, a perfect addition to a background music playlist also. Best: So Easy Worst: Poor Leno 3.5 Stars
Varsin lepposa tunnelma läpi levyn. Ei mitään korvamatoja mutta ei myöskään savea.
This was HUGE when it was first released. It’s still a pleasant listen although most tracks have been played to death, used by marketing firms to soundtrack visions of cool etc Enjoyable. Top tracks: Poor Leno, A Higher Place
Strong beats and catchy melodies, but it lost my attention half way through when it started to get a bit flat and boring in parts. It’s pretty much music to put on at dinner parties whilst everyone sits around doing drugs. 3/5 - liked it, but probably won’t listen again
Would give it 3.5? Some were good. Strange electronic vibes and good song radio
Mellow and hypnotic. Found myself relaxing into the music the more the album played 3.5 🌟
A couple of trippy bangers in there which would get a 7/10, but not enough in the rest of the material to lift it to a 4/5.
I remembered this album from back in the day. Was good to revisit and seemed to age reasonably well. Might give it a listen here and there for focused work.
Played this for the first time in 15 years, and it’s still exactly how I remember it. Brilliant first half, second half that runs out of steam and limps to the finish line. Having said that, this album is still worth it for ‘So Easy’ and ‘Sparks’ which are the two best things on it, and also happen to be timeless.
LOL - the electonic beep boop music that was overused in so many advertisements of the era. Good for these guys for gettin' paid!
Electroniphy? Symphonica? Either way, just slightly above average for me. Good to hear, but not going back
Pleasant enough, but I should listen again when I’m not Christmas shopping
This sounded very of-an-era I would say! Early 2000s chill out electro stuff, quite smooth and not too in your face. Its not really what I'm into but I enjoyed it.
Está finísimo, pero llega un momento en que suena a ensayos del in rainbows de radiohead.
Never heard of this band or album but enjoyed listening to it in the background while I worked.
The album as a whole is a mixed bag: the band's arranging talent is interesting, the compositional art rather superficial. Nevertheless, the album is very easy to listen to and enjoyable. (6/10) FT: Poor Leno, So Easy
Candidate for lo fi hip hop radio-beats to study/relax to Not gonna say I didn’t enjoy it tho
Nice album tho I would only really listen to it as background music while cleaning or driving.
This is such a fine exemple of trip-hop and chill-out electronic music, and it leaves no doubt that Röyksopp is one of the major artists in those genre. The experimentations make this album unique, but it also feels that there are so much space for then to grow (and they did). "Eple" is so catchy and stays in your head for days.
This one puzzles me. On the one hand...it's nice. Nice. On the other.... I'm not sure I'd ever want to actively listen to this...? It's great background music. Is that worthy of a top-1001? It's all subjective of course but I can't ever see myself having enough interest in something that's manufactured like this (not necessarily a critique) to voluntarily think "I need this album and nothing else for the next 45 minutes." Atmospheric, uber-mellow, again: it's nice and truthfully after a few songs I was really liking it but afterwards it suffers a ton from just being itself. Repeated loops and beats that have a nice melody and effect still just don't hold up over and over. I have a hard time rating it and will give it a nice 3; would listen again, wouldn't necessarily remember anything from it other than the mood. Maybe that's the point... 5/10 3 stars.
This isn't really my thing, it's kinda just muzak really, but I do have to give it a couple of points for being incredibly well crafted. It's slick as fuck... just boringly so. 3/5.
This is some pretty chill mood music, though one step up from background music. Very listenable.
Thought this would be one full of stuff I'd never heard and then track 1 started and had the 'ohhhh that's where this song comes from' moment. A very 'nice' album, good ambience and struck a chord with my tonally for when I was listening. The tracks with lyrics definitely not as good as those without
Just when I thought I had never heard anything by this group BAM! Geico caveman commercial song.
More of a 2.5 than a 3, but rounding it up because there were no actually very bad parts. I can't say there were any really great parts either though. This is just a nice-ish, mellow, ambient background electronic album. No more and no less.