AOTY #24: Todd Terje - It’s Album Time

It’s write-up time! (It’s write-up time! It’s write-up time! IT’S WRITE-UP TIME!)

For those who don’t consider themselves critically-acclaimed musician acolytes, Norwegian producer Todd Terje’s debut album It’s Album Time! may very well have appeared shockingly complete and polished for an artist on their first go-around. But for those in the know, Terje just took the heights he reached on shorter releases, and decided to extend his quality to an hour’s length

Scant on lyrics, but lavish on synths, It’s Album Time! works so well because most dance music is presently cheap, hastily thrown-together, and almost begrudgingly begging listeners to get up and move. Whether it’s the time signature changes and abrupt tone shifts, or his melodies that sound as if the soundtrack to Super Monkey Ball 2 was given an intellectual face-lift, the songs get you dancing (or shifting your lanky body in your chair as your roommate looks on probably thinking “so this is what one does with a philosophy degree”), but they also get you exploring. The instrumentation on this album is so dense, complex, and cohesive, that you’ll be declaring it Todd Terje time if only to unearth how many sounds collect together

P.S. In an era where "coolness" almost predates musical success, Todd Terje is an outlier in this regard. His near-cringeworthy dad sense of humor infects this record with the sort of ironic twinkles that purists might shrug off, but Terje includes because he's all about fun, and wants the listener to learn the same through audio osmosis. Now that's cool

It’s sign-off time! (Brian Duricy) It’s sign-off time! (Brian Duricy) It’s sign-off time! (Brian Duricy) IT’S SIGN-OFF TIME! (Brian Duricy)

Come back tomorrow for album #23 and follow along with the list here!