Robyn has long been a darling of electronic pop, her Body Talk trilogy of albums earning numerous Grammy nominations for the quality of song-writing as well as spawning seemingly countless remixes.  Her breakthrough single ‘Show Me Love’ has appeared on just about every 90s compilation imaginable. Rokysopp have been producing down-tempo, ambient electronica since releasing their seminal album Melody A.M. in 2001, and are as renowned for their eccentric and eclectic taste in clothes when they take to the stage as they are for their music.  ‘Do It Again’ is the announcement of a joint tour between these artists across Europe and North America, each act will play a selection of their own songs before performing tracks together from this EP.

Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be made of a collaboration is that the end product is greater than the sum of its parts.  ‘Do It Again’ is something of a mixed bag in that respect, it’s impeccably produced and the trio have clearly been allowed full artistic licence as two of the five tracks on offer clock in at a whopping 10 minutes each.  At times the song-writing is outstanding but in the more esoteric moments the EP loses its way.

‘Monument’ opens the EP drenched in atmosphere.  Chopped and reversed vocal samples soaked in reverb gradually build with cymbal and drum rolls to create a perfect backdrop for Robyn’s mesmerising vocals and pulsating bass synth stabs.  If the rest of the EP was this good it would be a sublime slice of electronica.  However, after 6 minutes the track segues into a saxophone solo underpinned by tribal drumming for no discernible reason.  Knowing when to stop is just as important as coming up with a memorable hook.

‘Sayit’ is practically an acid house song, quite frankly it’s completely out of kilter with the rest of the tracks on offer.  Techno beats, filthy synths and heavily vocoded; it feels like Robyn and Royksopp have taken us to a dirty Shoreditch warehouse rave but decided not to stick around, and the only people left on the dance-floor are the sweaty mash-ups.

For such an evocative lyricist, the standard displayed on title track ‘Do It Again’ is disappointingly wayward from Robyn.  One of the most prominent features of her song-writing has always been melancholic tales of love and loss, listen to ‘Dancing on my own’ and ‘Heartbeat’ for evidence of that.  It’s therefore a shame that the generic, bland and repetitive nature of the lyrics on ‘Do It Again’ let down what is otherwise a very good song.

‘Every Little Thing’ is the highlight of the EP, at 4 minutes long it is the shortest track from this collaboration.  It is an evocative, haunting tale of unrequited love and showcases both act’s finest song-writing.  If the EP was of this calibre consistently then I wouldn’t hesitate to see them live.

EP closer ‘Inside the Idle Hour Club’ is fully instrumental, making judicious use of gentle arpeggiated synth lines and atmospheric sound-scapes.  It’s a full four minutes before the rolling, saturated bass-line makes an appearance and rounds off the EP in a similar manner that ‘Monument’ started it, soaked in reverb.

‘Do It Again’ is quite an odd EP; there are five songs, Robyn only sings on three of them, and the EP lasts for 35 minutes.  Rather than being a cohesive selection of songs, it feels confused and lacks structure.  While there is some excellent song-writing present, there are some strange elements that I certainly wasn’t expecting from a Robyn and Royksopp hook-up.  Having said that, after several listens you can’t help but feel that was exactly their intention for the collaboration in the first place.