Robyn New CD Review
Swedish Pop Queen Eclipses Dance Music with Every Heartbeat
Known primarily for her 1997 top ten hit in the US, Robyn has grown into a hard hitting dance music mastermind with strange, tough lyrics and her own label.
Swedish pop’s reining queen, Robyn, releases her self titled album this week in the United States. The new CD features international smash “With Every Heartbeat” and comes out three years after its release in the rest of the world.
While unfamiliar to many on these shores, it’s hard to call Robyn’s new CD a debut or even a comeback, even though technically it could be considered both.
Stateside, top 40 followers may remember Robyn from her sugar sweet 1997 top ten single “Show Me Love” (not to be confused with Robin S who had short-lived success in the early 1990’s with a song of the same name).
Robyn emerged at the same time as Britney Spears. But instead of following the planned pop prescription, Robyn scrapped a planned tour with the Backstreet Boys, (Spears took the slot) dumped a record deal with Jive (Spears inked a deal) and headed out on her own.
Max Martin, who produced Robyn’s debut, went on to produce Spears’ Baby…One More Time, which sold a gazillion copies and made the Spears a household name. Meanwhile, Robyn had a handful of hits in her native country, but quickly faded into obscurity in the US.
Bionic Woman
After going indie, the platinum blonde recreated her image based on a hairdo made popular by the Thompson Twins, started own record label ‘Konichiwa’and produced music she wanted to make.
Teaming up with a group of experimental producers and songwriters including The Knife, The Teddybears and Kleerup, Robyn produced one of the best electronic dance albums of 2005.
Late last summer, club smash “With Every Heartbeat”, a remix performed with Kleerup from that album, became a radio hit and topped the charts in the UK, followed by the release of her album.
Follow up singles “Be Mine” and “Handle Me” dominated the UK top 40 throughout the rest of the year and latest single “Who’s That Girl”, her collaboration with The Knife, has begun a steady climb up the charts.
Konichiwa Bitches
Mixing swooping 80’s synths and hard beats, intelligent, hard-hitting lyrics and tracks ready for the floor, Robyn pulls more punches than many of her contemporaries.
Like Madonna, Robyn deals a lot with sex in her songs, her way. “You be the girl and I'll be the guy / Let's pretend everything has changed / and then would you love me any different” she asks in “Who’s That Girl”. And like The American pop music icon, Robyn proves time and again she won’t easily fulfill a predetermined conception and won’t be pushed around.
Unlike Madonna, however, Robyn rarely hits listeners over the head with her toughness – she’s subtly strange. “Handle Me” a bouncy guitar-pop track contains one of the best kiss-off lines ever recorded: “but you're a selfish narcissistic psycho freaking bootlicking Nazi creep and you can't handle me”.
On “Bum Like You” a catchy Euro-dance track, Robyn sings about the bad boyfriend. But instead of dissing the guy, she stoically sings “You're always up to no good / Your fingers in my cookie jar … You could be my dog / I would push your bail bonds when cash was tight /We could fall in love”.
Every track from this album contains the potential to become a monster smash if radio and other music outlets give it even half the chance it deserves.
It may only be April, but this CD warrants a spot on the best of 2008 list.
Cobrastyle
Things come full circle for the talented artist. Robyn recently hit the top ten in the US as backing vocalist for the Britney Spears track “Piece of Me”. Now Universal Music Group has picked up the American distribution of her album.
Robyn releases her self-titled album on April 29. Unfortunately Madonna releases Hard Candy on the same day.
Robyn is currently on a short North American tour.
