49%: 1 percent short of happiness and half of really much of nothing

A song:

A while back, I got Röyksopp's sophore album, The Understanding, and was surprised by how different it sounded from their first album, Melody A.M. It seemed more upbeat than its predecessor and perhaps a bit more commercial (not a bad album at all but it certainly threw some reviewers for a loop since some panned it, expecting a safer follow-up to their stunning debut).

Me? I listened to it a couple of times but nothing caught my breath in the way that "Poor Leno" or "Eple" did from the 1st album.

But sometimes a song makes you re-evaluate a whole album and this is the case with The Understanding.

Their third single, the great "What Else Is There," recently came out (it has an amazing video which you can download here) and it's the second time that I have been forced to re-evaluate the album.

The stunner, though, is "49%" (the video is not that great but it was partly shot in beautiful Barcelona where I was back in January). The "49 Percent 1 Percent Short Of Happiness And Half Of Really Much Of Nothing" chorus has been stuck in my head for a month now and, if you give it a chance, I'm sure it'll become one of your favorite songs of the year. For some reason it's become sort of an anthem to my life as the year comes to an end.

Look for an exclusive set of remixes in the I-Tunes shop (from Angello & Ingrosso, Ewan Pearson, West London Deep and M.A.N.D.Y.) but go straight for the glorious original - only available on The Understanding CD.