Do It Again (EP)

Background and development

Röyksopp and Robyn first collaborated in 2009 on the song "The Girl and the Robot", which was released as a single from Röyksopp's third studio album, Junior. The two artists collaborated again in 2010 on "None of Dem", a track from Robyn's fifth studio album, Body Talk Pt. 1. On 9 December 2013, Röyksopp and Robyn announced plans to embark on a joint tour titled the Röyksopp & Robyn Do It Again Tour 2014, which would include dates across Europe and North America.

After concluding her Body Talk Tour, Robyn felt uninspired to record a new album. She decided to travel to Bergen, Norway, where she started working on new music with Röyksopp in the beginning of 2013 "with no real agenda". "I've been going back and forth to Bergen to record and write with the boys up until recently. Collaborating with [Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland] is something I enjoy very much. In the beginning we just knew we wanted to do something together and then it started to feel more like a band thing than songs for a Röyksopp or Robyn album so we're releasing this music together as a band, you could say", she said, describing the collaborative project as "an outlet for not having to live up to anything but my own expectations."

Robyn also stated that she wanted to work with the duo "from scratch". "I thought it would be interesting. In the beginning we just decided to make music. No one said, 'We should make music for this album' or 'We should make music for that album.' Then I had this idea where, you know, maybe we can create something together. I had no real wish to start recording an album right away. I'd just gotten off tour. I wanted to just play around and do stuff and collaborate. Secretly in my mind I wanted us to be a band, but I didn't think it seriously. Then we turned into a band. Carrying the weight together is something that I think changes the music."

According to Berge, the three of them were "in a particular place and space in our lives, where things were perhaps a bit bleak. So, in a way, we were all starting from square one, with no real intention other than to take our time and make what we wanted. And value every opinion, and I think that that translated well into the music." The duo commented that Do It Again "doesn't sound like Röyksopp featuring Robyn or Robyn produced by Röyksopp, it's just something else entirely. The word 'collaboration' has never before been more justified in the world of music!" In April 2014, it was reported that Do It Again would serve as an introduction to Röyksopp's then-untitled fifth studio album, The Inevitable End, which was released in November and features two songs from the EP.

Composition

The extended play opens with "Monument", a 10-minute track inspired by the clay sculptures of Brazilian-American artist Juliana Cerqueira Leite that Robyn saw at London's Saatchi Gallery. The song's minimal instrumentation consists of a "stretched-out" saxophone outro and synthesised bass, while lyrically, Robyn stated it is "about death", "defining who you are" and "a physical sensation of an emotion". "Sayit", an electro-punk and house song, features a "lustful" conversation between Robyn and a Speak & Spell toy over a "glitchy" techno beat. Berge described the song as "a bit of an homage to the good old days of clubbing", and cited it as "the dirtiest song on the record, both in terms of production and concept."

"Do It Again" is a "throbbing" electropop song on which Robyn "contemplates resuming an on-again, off-again relationship", while incorporating "fluttering" synths and "slamming" drums. Röyksopp and Robyn wrote the title track after an "epic" night out in Bergen, Norway, resulting in what the trio calls an "accidental pop song". "Every Little Thing" is a bittersweet electro ballad that "layers synthesizers and a gently pulsating beat to evoke heartbeats and conflicted emotions." The ten-minute closing instrumental, "Inside the Idle Hour Club", is an "almost eerie ambient soundscape". The track "barely features Robyn's vocals at all", while employing "looping synths and brass just barely pinned down by a hypnotic house beat."

Release and promotion

On 14 April 2014, Röyksopp and Robyn announced that their collaborative extended play, Do It Again, would be released on 26 May, while sharing a snippet of the song "Monument". The title track was released digitally on 28 April 2014 as the album's lead single. The song reached number 16 on the Swedish Singles Chart and number 18 on the Danish Singles Chart, as well as number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart in the US.

The second single, "Sayit", was released digitally on 19 May 2014, while its accompanying video premiered through H&M Life on the same day. The song "Monument" is featured in Volvo's "Made by Sweden" ad campaign, which stars Robyn and launched online and on television in Sweden on 2 May 2014. The song was released as the album's third single on 15 August 2014, and was preceded by a Max Vitali-directed music video on 12 August.

Tour

To promote the collaborative effort, Röyksopp and Robyn announced on 9 December 2013 that they would be co-headlining a tour together, the Röyksopp & Robyn Do It Again Tour 2014. The first tour dates, along with a promotional trailer featuring the track "Sayit", were unveiled on 7 April 2014. The tour kicked off at Sónar by Night in Barcelona, Spain on 13 June 2014. "We're going to do a set each—Röyksopp will play their songs, and I'll play my songs—then we'll do a part of the set together, with all the songs that we've ever done together", Robyn told Billboard.

Critical reception

Do It Again received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 22 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Tom Morris of DIY characterised the EP as "a riot of compulsive, flawlessly-produced, and beautifully impassioned music", and lauded it as "a towering edifice of electronic brilliance". Stephen Carlick of Exclaim! commented that on Do It Again, "Röyksopp and Robyn have not only traversed new territory, they've made it their own." AllMusic's Heather Phares wrote that Röyksopp "bookends the EP with two of the most introspective tracks to ever grace a Robyn-affiliated project", and noted that "the EP's sugary pop center provides a welcome balance", citing "Sayit" and the title track as highlights. Despite stating that "Röyksopp's contributions flag and sometimes feel dated or too techno-y", Caitlin White of Consequence of Sound viewed Do It Again as "a solid collection of five disparate songs" and found that the album "feels like an exploration for all involved, and even manages to address gender politics in discreet but intriguing ways." Pitchfork Media's Marc Hogan called the album "excellent" and described it as "the physical artifact of Robyn and Röyksopp's union, it's extravagant and left of center, but it's above all generous."

Killian Fox of The Observer opined, "What's unexpected about this mini-album is how subdued Robyn, a larger-than-life presence, sounds on (most of) it", concluding that "Röyksopp are on top form here, and when Robyn returns to her exuberant self on the title track, expressing mixed feelings about having insatiable appetites, the effect is electrifying." Joe Goggins of Drowned in Sound stated that "Do It Again is eccentric and ends too quickly, but those considerations pale next to the fact that within less than half an hour, Robyn and Röyksopp go from eyeing each other with genuine suspicion to sounding as if they’ve never been apart." Max Raymond of musicOMH wrote that with Do It Again, Röyksopp and Robyn have "confirmed how much of a dynamite pairing they can be", while remarking that the EP "isn't as downright amazing as it could have been, but there are far more pros than cons. It's definitely self-indulgent in places, resulting in some of the most adventurous pieces of music that either artist has conjured up in their respective careers, but those moments are entirely justified." Rolling Stone's Sophie Weiner expressed that "[e]ven without the ecstatic melodrama of Robyn's best work or the momentum of Röyksopp albums like 2009's Junior, this is a worthwhile peek into three great electro-pop minds", naming "Monument" the album's best track. In a mixed review, Slant Magazine's Kevin Liedel felt that "Röyksopp and Robyn share so much sonic DNA that their team-up is almost self-defeating, blurring the distinction between the two to the point where their respective quirks are essentially scratched in favor of a cohesive but far too clinical production", adding that "neither party challenges the other to escape this new comfort zone".

Do It Again was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards, but lost out to Aphex Twin's Syro.

Commercial performance

In Röyksopp's native Norway, Do It Again debuted at number three on the Norwegian Albums Chart, becoming the duo's first record to miss the top spot. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 20, selling 4,806 copies in its first week. In the United States, the album debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 and at number one on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart with 15,000 copies, giving both artists their first number-one album on the latter chart. Do It Again also became the highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 by a Norwegian artist (Röyksopp), a record previously held by a-ha's Hunting High and Low, which peaked at number 15 in 1985. Elsewhere, the album reached the top five in Denmark, the top 15 in Australia and Canada, and the top 20 in Switzerland.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Do It Again.