Part four: insert subtitle here

I must be nuts, don’t worry, I haven’t just realised this, I realised it when I first set out on this quest to listen to 250 albums. But hey, it’s actually kinda fun. So let’s move on to album 245 on our list: Norwegian duo Röyksopp’s début album from 2001 Melody AM.

I actually remember a few of Röyksopp’s songs fondly, which is almost a novelty so far in this list. The electronic pop they produce has been widely found on various BBC, Channel 4 and T-Mobile adverts as well as on the playlist of Radio 1. So I was interested to hear what they put out in album form.

It starts out in a very familiar way, the two singles So Easy and Eple. It’s spooky, ethereal music, ideal for the background to whatever else you have to do. Much of the album will prick up the ears as familiar, you know you’ve heard it somewhere before but can’t place it. Sometimes that can be a bad, frustrating thing, but in the case of Melody AM it just reminds you of some beautifully crafted bit of TV, designed to be nice on the eye. The album is a thing of beauty, never crashing into your consciousness, it’s there, just playing along, soothing your mind.

The calm is shattered slightly by the closing track 40 YearsBack/Come not because it suddenly goes all loud and in your face, but because it’s just plain eerie. It’s a chilling way to leave an album, but a very good song. The majority of the album seems a world away from having that many specific influences other than contemporaries like Goldfrapp. But at the end an 80s version of what you’ve been listening to enters your mind.

I like it, it’s intriguing, willing you to listen again, be relaxed all over again and let it just wash over you. Give it a go.

Next we move onto Anthony and the Johnsons’ 2005 Mercury Award winning I Am a Bird Now.

And to be honest, I said I’d say something for every album, so for this my review is: No. Just no, it’s all lovely and high pitched and gentle but just bored me. Sorry Anthony.

The album to grace my ears is KT Tunstall’s Eye To The Telescope. I’ve always liked what I’ve heard from the Scottish singer-songwriter, but, a bit like Röyksopp’s effort earlier it’s an album I’ve meant to listen to, but never gotten around to.

She’s exactly what she says on the tin, a girl with a guitar. Never a style I go for normally, but I find there’s something about her music that gets me. I think it’s because it’s more up-tempo than most. Her voice isn’t the whiny annoyance that the likes of Katy Melua sell records on the back of.

While some of the lyrics scream ‘oh why oh why did it happen to me’ the possible descent into Nora Jones territory is offset by the electric sounds that dominate the background. Vocals come from a voice you’d be happy to hear at any time while the tap along records are partnered by more acoustic sounds like the single Other Side of the World. On release The Guardian said: “Throughout, KT has enough rasp in her warm voice to give it character, and that alone provides an edge over the Joneses of the world.” I can’t help but agree.