Melody A.M.

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• ambient
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Melody A.M. is the debut studio album by Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp, released on 13 September 2001 by Wall of Sound. The album reached number one in the Norwegian Albums chart. In the UK, it reached number nine in the country's Album chart, and topped both the Dance Albums and the Independent Albums charts. As of 2005, the album had sold 750,000 copies worldwide,<ref name="1001-albums"/> with 454,271 sold in the United Kingdom alone.<ref name="UK-sales">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Composition

Jon Setzen of the San Francisco Chronicle describes the album as "an across-the-board mix of bleepy synths, crunch beats and ambient, dreamy vocals, with even a bit disco mixed in at times".<ref name="sanfranciscochronicle"/> With the album, "Röyksopp balances the haunted atmospheres of Boards of Canada with the more traditional "songwriting" sensibility of downbeat specialists like Groove Armada or Koop", according to John Bush of AllMusic.<ref name="amg"/> Andy Gill of The Independent said that Melody A.M. exemplifies the band's intention to combine "Satie-esque harmonies and melodies like those of Francis Lai with the best aspects of three decades of electronic dance music: that Seventies analogue warmth, those fat Eighties beats and that meticulous Nineties programming."<ref name="andygill">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nick DeCicco of Daily Republic also compared the record to the works of Air, Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead and Moby.<ref name="dailyrepublic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The album features vocals by Anneli Drecker and Erlend Øye.<ref name="popmatters">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The first track "So Easy", described as "eerie",<ref name="theguardian" /> samples the refrain from Bobby Vinton's "Blue on Blue", said to be "recorded by some long-forgotten vocal chorus" and has "a chunky bassline" underneath.<ref name="amg" /> The second track "Eple", has "a high-pitched sonic tickle that falls in and out of pitch", and "is pushed through with acoustic guitar and sluggish drums"<ref name="theavclub" /> The "slow R&B" track "Sparks", said to be a "toned-down" Portishead", has "Drecker's vocals drift and hang over the lush bass lines and airy guitar riffs."<ref name="sanfranciscochronicle" /> The "gentle drum and bass" track "In Space" has "rippling harps over sighing, sampled strings"<ref name="launch"/><ref name="nme" /> "Poor Leno" is a house song where Øye sings "a lullaby hook over a rich, subtly mutating" groove.<ref name="launch" /><ref name="pitchfork" />

"A Higher Place" is a downtempo track with "phosphorescent synth chords and a stinging guitar loop".<ref name="pitchfork" /><ref name="rollingstone" /> The next track "Royksopp's Night Out" is described as "tense, cinematic funk", where the band "allow themselves to break into a free-flowing and slightly less restrained darkness."<ref name="theguardian" /><ref name="pitchfork" /> "Remind Me" is a club track influenced by acid house and explores easy listening music with "playground keyboard refrains and 60s vocal melody". It also has "squiggly bass lines, melancholic synth effects, and dreamy male vocals."<ref name="playlouder" /><ref name="billboardreview">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The next track "She's So", a track with "mournful saxophone and arcing synths to recall the dated tones of Tangerine Dream",<ref name="launch">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "places the swooning moogs and strings of Air" with an "otherworldliness" texture "reminiscent of Vangelis' soundtrack to Blade Runner."<ref name="playlouder">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The album closes with "40 Years Back/Come", a track with an "'80s sense of artificial ethereality" and "spindly, etiolated synth lines around rasping, squelchy beats before closing with warm fretless bass."<ref name="amg" /><ref name="andygill" />

Critical reception

Template:Music ratings Melody A.M. was met with universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 81, based on 21 reviews.<ref name="MC" />

Andy Battaglia of The A.V. Club called the album "a highly imaginative entry into the saturated realm of downtempo chill-out music."<ref name="theavclub">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Writing for Launch, Ken Micallef wrote that "Röyksopp spins ambient trip hop into bedazzled and beautiful winter Muzak."<ref name="launch" /> Ethan Brown remarked that the album "will at least remind some of its eccentric possibilities. Like Björk's Vespertine or bedroom auteurs like Luke Vibert, Melody A.M. wires us into a highly personal, almost cocoonlike sonic sensibility."<ref name="vulture">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The album "settles into a stream of pastoral, boutique techno that’s both soothing and derivative", according to David Browne of Entertainment Weekly.<ref name="ew" />

Abebe Nitsuh of Pitchfork considered Melody A.M. to be "the most solid, confident, and generally pleasurable downtempo full-length you'll be hearing for a while. Whether that means it's a must-buy, more well-meaning nondescript bubbling, or end-of-the-world car-commercial music has to be left to you." However, he said that the worst moments of the album is when the duo "go generically downtempo and then miss the mark".<ref name="pitchfork" /> DeCicco found the album unoriginal, continuing that "there isn’t much here that wasn’t done better and more interestingly at the height of downtempo’s popularity than it was by Röyksopp’s contemporaries."<ref name="dailyrepublic" />

On 21 November 2007, the album was included on The GuardianTemplate:'s series of the 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is also listed in a similar selection, called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, in a series of books by Quintessence Editions.<ref name="1001-albums">Template:Cite book</ref> On 24 November 2009, Melody A.M. was named the best Norwegian album of the 2000s decade by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Track listing

Sample credits<ref name="booklet"/>

• "So Easy" contains a sample from "Blue on Blue" by Gals and Pals.
• "A Higher Place" contains a sample from "Freedom" by the Tyrrel Corporation.
• "She's So" contains a sample from "Love in Space" by Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra.
• "40 Years Back\Come" contains a sample from "Red Right Returning" by Michael Manring.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Melody A.M.<ref name="booklet">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

• Röyksopp – arrangement, production
• Anneli Drecker – vocals on "Sparks"
• Erlend Øye – vocals on "Poor Leno" and "Remind Me"
• Ole J. Mjøs – co-production on "A Higher Place"
• Ole Vegard "05" Skauge – bass on "A Higher Place"
• Rune Lindbæk – extra input on "A Higher Place" and "40 Years Back\Come"
• Marte Rognerud – inner sleeve photography
• Sølve Sundsbø – cover photography
• Tom Hingston Studio – design

Charts

Weekly charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Weekly chart performance for Melody A.M.

Chart (2001–2003)	Peak position
Australian Alternative Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite magazine Template:CbignoreTemplate:Cbignore</ref>	21
Belgian Alternative Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	26
European Albums (Music & Media)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	36
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	211
UK Dance Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	1

Year-end charts

2002 year-end chart performance for Melody A.M.

Chart (2002)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	91

2003 year-end chart performance for Melody A.M.

Chart (2003)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	74

Release history

Release history for Melody A.M.

Region	Date	Edition	Label	Template:Abbr
Germany	13 September 2001	Standard	Parlophone	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Italy	14 September 2001		EMI	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
United Kingdom	8 October 2001		Wall of Sound	<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
France	9 October 2001		Labels	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Australia	4 March 2002		EMI	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Japan	5 June 2002			<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
United Kingdom	12 August 2002	Reissue	Wall of Sound	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
United States	15 October 2002	Template:Hlist	Astralwerks	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Japan	18 June 2003	Special	EMI	<ref name="Japan-special">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>