Album Review: Royksopp The Inevitable End

A foreboding title evinces anticipation for what will be Röyksopp’s final long playing exercise as the Norwegian duo officially call time on the album format. Mourn not for the band, but for the sight of a new Röyksopp album on the shelves of that record store you didn’t realise closed in the two years since your last visit. George Michael was wrong – guilty feet have got rhythm.

For every moment spent on the moon-kissed roof, arms outstretched unto the breeze to Running To The Sea, or slam-funking to Monument, you’ll spend another in a mushroomy haze, gouching out to Coup De Grace or the barely conscious vocals of Jamie Irrepressible in Compulsion. Dance (if you can be fucked). At the heart, we find the heart-stopping I Had This Thing (irrepressible again, this time in euphoric house mode) harnessing throbbing helicopter rhythms into a beautiful, teary-eyed elegy. Signing off with Thank You as a tribute to ‘the fans’ seems a bit twee, but the postscript of the Do It Again EP bonus disc offers a little more Robyn and a little more Scando-cinematica that would’ve sat awkwardly in the main album.

The Inevitable End plays like the most uplifting of funerals, an emotional ride of joy, pain, bliss, love and hope. How dare they quit a format they’re so damned good at!