Melody A.M. by Röyksopp

“Yeah it’s me. I wanna give you some good frequencies”

One of those records which brings back memories of a specific place and time; when we had a one-year-old and it was my turn to do the childcare, one of my favourite things to do was to take him into town in his pushchair, go up to the top floor of Borders, let him fall asleep, and relax looking through some good books on, ooh I don’t know, HTML or something. And guess what? Melody A.M. by Röyksopp always seemed to be playing in that bookstore while I read.

Being great background music shouldn’t be a badge of dishonour. Melody A.M. is one of my favourite albums to work to, ever …and for someone who works from home, having great albums to work to is so important. Released in 2001, it was recently named the best Norwegian album of the decade by that country’s largest newspaper. Stop giggling at the back. The album is a wonderfully knowledgeable collision of ambient and house music – “down-tempo” seems to be the phrase – which shouldn’t be criticised just because every track seems to have been used in one commercial or other over the years. I love it.

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