Junior

Listen to it now and you might beg to differ, but history's current take on The Understanding (Röyksopp's 2005 answer to their relentlessly smiley faced debut) seems to be that it was a misstep. Despite a lead single ("Only This Moment") that foresaw trance's miniature mainstream resurgence and memorable contributions from Karin Driejer (whose "What Else Is There" ranks among Röyksopp's finest songs) and Chelonis R. Jones (whose syncopated "49 Percent" helped eke the Norwegian duo into more credible techno territory), this darker, more textured follow-up stalled at the gate. In retrospect, it was probably done under by both expectation and competition: Not only did The Understanding fail to deliver anything as relentlessly chirpy as early single "Eple" or as friendly and as instantaneous as the Geico Caveman-endorsed "Remind Me", but it was also up against increasingly significant competition from the emergent Scandinavian electro-pop scene.