"What Else Is There?" is the third single from the Norwegian duo

Röyksopp Röyksopp () a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø formed in 1998. The duo consists of childhood friends Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland who formed Röyksopp during the Bergen Wave. After experimenting with different Electronic Mu ...

's second album '' The Understanding''. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of

Astralwerks Astralwerks (or Astralwerks Records) is an American record label primarily focused on electronic music that is now owned by Universal Music Group. Its material is distributed via Capitol Music Group in the United States. The label was founded in ...

. The single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film '' Cashback'' and the 2007 film, ''

Meet Bill ''Meet Bill'' (formerly known as ''Bill'') is a 2007 American comedy film written and directed by Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallack, and stars Aaron Eckhart as the title character, with supporting performances by Logan Lerman, Jessica Alba, ...

''. Trentemøller's remix of "What Else is There?" was featured in an episode of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

show '' Entourage''. The song was covered by

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album '' E'' in 2017, and by the one-man goth metal band Mortemia for their singles collection '' The Pandemic Pandemonium Sessions'' in 2022. The song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

Official versions

#"What Else Is There?" (Album Version) – 5:17 #"What Else Is There?" (Radio Edit) – 3:38 #"What Else Is There?" ( Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46 #"What Else Is There?" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03 #"What Else Is There?" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51 #"What Else Is There?" ( Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25 #"What Else Is There?" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50 #"What Else Is There?" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06 #"What Else Is There?" ( Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42 #"What Else Is There?" ( Vitalic Remix) – 5:14

Response

The single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the

UK Dance Chart The Dance Singles Chart and the Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the electronic dance music, dance music genre (e.g. house music, house, trance music, trance, ...

, it reached number one.

Music video

The music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown

lip-syncing Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , like the word ''sink'', despite the spelling of the participial forms ''synced'' and ''syncing''), short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements ...

Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.

Movie spots

The song is also featured in the movie ''

'' as characters played by

Jessica Alba Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her acting career at age 13 in ''Camp Nowhere'', followed up by ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'' (both 1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as ...

and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film '' Cashback''.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2005 singles Röyksopp songs Astralwerks singles Songs written by Svein Berge Songs written by Torbjørn Brundtland 2004 songs Songs written by Roger Greenaway Songs written by Olof Dreijer Songs written by Karin Dreijer