Single Review: Royksopp (feat. Susanne Sundfor) – ‘Running To The Sea’
2 min read
Electronic music is something that I am still very new to, although I was forced to get rather intimate with it this year as part of my Music Industry course. In one subject we had to create a remix of the Queen song Don’t Stop Me Now. I found it so difficult that though I managed to produce a final mix, I ended up dropping the class soon after. In second semester I had to take another, similar class and was expected to perform a piece of music that I had created using computer sound production software in front of the whole class. I managed to do this, and it didn’t go too badly, although I mainly stuck to using loops. Electronic music is certainly no picnic to create, and I now have a high level of respect for anyone who can do it.
Röyksopp is a duo that does electronic music with flair and ingenuity. Their new single Running To The Sea, featuring Susanne Sundfør, is a beautifully crafted song that doubles as a great dance track. It features warm, gentle keyboards, a fairly standard dance beat, Sundfør’s crystalline vocals and, towards the end, some awesome snare drums.
The lyrics are disarmingly gorgeous: “And the river flows beneath your skin/Like savage horses kept within/And all is wasted in the sand/Like breaking diamonds with your hand”. Sundfør’s ethereal voice sets the tone for the whole song.
The structure of the song is perfect. It builds the whole way through, so there is always a feeling of suspense. The snare drums at the end are just fabulous, just when you thought the song couldn’t build anymore.
This is a divine concoction of a song that completely deserves all the attention that it is receiving (the live version on YouTube currently has over one million hits).
