I love me some Norwegian electronica.

Particularly when it comes in the form of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland. Röyksopp‘s latest album is Senior, the much anticipated follow-up to Junior, a poppy, blippy and toe-tappingly fun affair that hit the shelves in March of ’09. But what was cool about the launch of Junior is that fans of the techno twosome were told fairly right away that Senior was also coming down the pipeline. Talk about planning. Where Guns n’ Roses take 13 years to put out one album, S&T already had two in the wings.

So Senior is a darker (check out that near-black album cover!), foresty, swooshy, introspective affair. It’s no less wonderful and fills the void out there with its intensely pretty beeps. It’s lush and swoons. First single “The Drug” harkens back to the heyday of great chillout. There’s rain on the album and a few birds. And a delightful slight crackle that you only get on vinyl. It sounds great when coupled with a hangover, comedown or Sunday. Inspiration apparently came from Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou – otherwise known as VANGELIS.

Röyksopp are pretty awesome live and I can only pray (DO YOU HEAR THAT, TROMSØ?) the boys get their act over to the Best Coast and tour N.A proper in time. Particularly as the last time I saw them was, oh, the UK Homelands festival in 2002, where I, rather “refreshed”, bumped into Torbjørn and insisted that as a result of my Danishness and his Norwegianness that we were somehow interconnected. And then I told him I was going to be his biggest cheerleader down the front. I was.

Without further adø, here’s Senior.

It’s available on September 13, but you can preorder it here.  On first listen, I’m thinking it may be a contender.

Hear it for yourself: \m/