Röyksopp - The Understanding

"What Else Is There" is still a killer song, but the rest of this album is rather middling, alas. Starts swirling and pretty and inconsequential, and quickly devolves into mere inconsequence - middle-of-the-road electronica for the masses. It's not its tastefulness or its palatability that I hold against The Understanding but rather the album's lack of interesting ideas or genuine high points (though "Alpha Male", buried two-thirds of the way in, provides a bit of sparkle). Not painful to listen to - just not very inspiring.