''Junior'' is the third studio album by Norwegian

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

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 ...

. It was released on 18 March 2009 by

Wall of Sound The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session m ...

. Prior to its official release, the album was made available for listening on the duo's website on 13 March 2009.

Background and history

The album features guest vocals from Scandinavian singers

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (; born 12 June 1979), known professionally as Robyn (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. Her 1995 debut album ''Robyn Is Here'' produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top 10 single ...

Karin Dreijer Karin Elisabeth Dreijer (born 7 April 1975) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo the Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. They released their debut solo album under ...

Lykke Li Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson (born 18 March 1986), known as Lykke Li (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, model and actress. Her music often blends elements of indie pop, dream pop and Electronic music, electronic. Her debut studio album, ''Youth ...

and Anneli Drecker. ''Junior'' debuted at number 21 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, selling 10,378 copies in its first week. By September 2010, the album had sold 36,239 copies in the United Kingdom. The album's lead single, " Happy Up Here", premiered on 9 January 2009 on

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong (born 30 July 1960) is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as '' Essential Mix'' and '' Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for ...

's '' Essential Selection'' on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

, and was officially released on 19 January. " The Girl and the Robot", which features Swedish singer Robyn, was released on 15 June 2009 as the album's second single. "

This Must Be It "This Must Be It" is the third single (music), single from the Norway, Norwegian duo Röyksopp's third album ''Junior (Röyksopp album), Junior''. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer (Fever Ray, The Knife). The single was released on 2 Novembe ...

" features Dreijer and was released on 23 October 2009 as the third single.

Use in media

"It's What I Want" was included in the official soundtrack of the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

video game, ''

FIFA 10 ''FIFA 10'' (titled ''FIFA Soccer 10'' in North America) is a Association football, football Simulation video game, simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. It was releas ...

''. "Röyksopp Forever" was also used in the background of the Flashforward Channel 5 promos during September 2009 and used as backing music on ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

'' 2009 in live shows. An instrumental version of "Vision One" was licensed for use in the video game ''

LittleBigPlanet 2 ''LittleBigPlanet 2'' is a 2011 puzzle-platform video game developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. The second main instalment in the ''LittleBigPlanet'' series and the third overall, it is ...

''. "This Must Be It" was included in the soundtrack to the 2011 comedy film ''

Hall Pass ''Hall Pass'' is a 2011 American comedy film produced and directed by the Farrelly brothers and co-written by them along with Pete Jones, the writer/director of '' Stolen Summer''. It stars Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis. Rick and Fred, two hu ...

''.

Critical reception

''Junior'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 74, based on 21 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". The album was placed at number 30 on ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

''s Top 50 Albums of 2009, number 19 on

Popjustice Popjustice is a music website founded in 2000 by UK freelance music journalist Peter Robinson, who has worked for ''NME'', ''The Guardian'', ''Attitude'' and many others. It is composed of the work of editor Robinson, features editor Michael C ...

's The Top 33 Albums of 2009 and number 21 on ''

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printe ...

''s Top 50 Albums of 2009.

Track listing

Notes

* "Happy Up Here" contains a sample of " Do That Stuff" by

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. * "Vision One" is an English-language version of Röyksopp's remix of "Sing a Song" by

Eri Nobuchika is a Japanese singer-songwriter, under the Fearless Records label on Sony Music Associated Records. She currently resides in Tokyo. Biography Early years Nobuchika's professional career began at an open Sony Music audition. She sent in her ...

. * "Röyksopp Forever" contains a sample of "Suites for My Lady" by

Skylark ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially ...

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Junior''. *

– production, mastering ; vocals ; string arrangements, strings ; vocoded mystique ; backing vocals ; bass *

– vocals * Anneli Drecker – backing vocals ; vocals * Davide Rossi – string arrangements, strings *

Karin Dreijer Andersson Karin Elisabeth Dreijer (born 7 April 1975) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo the Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. They released their debut solo album under ...

– vocals * Kato Ådland – bass *

Lindy-Fay Hella Lindy-Fay Hella (born in 1975) is a Norwegian singer, musician and composer, known as a member of Wardruna and Lindy-Fay Hella & Dei Farne. She played electronic music before becoming a founding member of Wardruna, which plays eclectic music influ ...

– additional vocals *

– vocals * Ole Vegard Skauge – bass * Mike Marsh – mastering * Stian Andersen – cover photography * Leslie David – drawings, artwork

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Junior (Royksopp album) 2009 albums Astralwerks albums Röyksopp albums Virgin Records albums Wall of Sound (record label) albums