Röyksopp's 8 greatest songs ever, ranked

22 November 2019, 13:42

By Tom Eames

Norwegian duo Röyksopp are one of the leading electronic bands of the last 20 years.

Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland met through a mutual friend in Tromsø, and soon experimented with various styles of electronic music before going their separate ways.

Several years later, the pair met up again and formed Röyksopp, and found huge success with their 2001 debut album, Melody A.M.

Since then, they have released four more hit albums and continue to perform for fans around the world.

For any Röyksopp newbies, we've selected just a handful of fantastic songs to make for a perfect chilled playlist:

'What Else is There?'

Röyksopp - What Else Is There?

This was the third single from Royksopp's second album The Understanding, and featured the vocals of The Knife singer Karin Dreijer.
Already a rather dark track, we particularly love the haunting 7:40 Trentemoller remix.
'Eple'

Röyksopp - Eple HD (Offical Video)

This catchy ditty was arguably the song that first gave Royksopp international success, and was from their debut album Melody AM.
The title comes from the Norwegian word for apple, and was later used by Apple as the introduction music for the Mac OS X v10.3 Setup Assistant. It became a number 16 hit in the UK in 2003.
'Poor Leno'

Royksopp - Poor Leno

From their classic album Melody AM, this song had vocals from Kings of Convenience member Erlend Øye.
The song's excellent animated music video features a creature resembling a boy in a bear suit, and the story of the creature being tracked and captured, before being caged in a zoo, hoping for escape.
'Remind Me'

Röyksopp - Remind Me (HD)

This Melody AM track used the same formula as 'Poor Leno', by using Kings of Convenience member Erlend Øye to great effect.
However, this track is a lot more merry in atmosphere, with low-fi synthesizers and jazz-style drums.
We also love its stylish pixel-art music video. Wow, we miss the early 2000s!
'Running to the Sea'

Röyksopp - Running To The Sea (Official video)

This track was taken from the aptly-titled The Inevitable End, the fifth and (currently) final album from the band.
The song features vocals from from Norwegian singer-songwriter Susanne Sundfør
'So Easy'

Royksopp - So Easy

This was Royksopp's first ever single. It was actually first made available in 1999, with only 500 copies made and distributed, before being included on Melody AM two years later.
The song brilliantly contains instrumental and vocal samples from a 1960s cover version of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song 'Blue on Blue', recorded by the Swedish group Gals & Pals. Niche, but amazing.
'Happy Up Here'

Röyksopp - Happy Up Here [Official Music Video]

This jaunty 2009 track was first given away as a free download ahead of its inclusion on their album Junior.
It samples Parliament's 1976 funk single, 'Do That Stuff', and it always makes us want to get up and boogie.
'The Girl and the Robot'

Röyksopp 'The Girl And The Robot'

This track was named by many critics as the best song on their album Junior, and featured in various 'best-of' lists that year.
Swedish legend Robyn joined the group for this song, which was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award.