Artist – Album: Robyn – Robyn
Released: 27th
April 2005
Sounds Like: Sweet swede hip-pop
Ah, I have to admit,
I’ve made a bit of mistake on today’s blog. Robyn’s Robyn was released on the 27th April 2005 but only in Sweden.
It took nearly two years for it to come out over here, and in that time she shuffled
the track listing and added a couple of great songs in the cover of The Teddybears’
‘Cobrastyle’ and the absolutely
phenomenal ‘With Every Heartbeat’. The
latter in particular is so good that I was pretty disappointed when I realised
I wouldn’t be listening to it, but, what luck, it turns out the whole record is
chock full of hip hop/pop marvels regardless.
The back story is a belter – leaving her record label in the
early years of the millennium as they tried to market her as the next Christina
Aguilera, Robyn must have felt like her hopes of making it as a pop star were
over. Instead, she accidently discovered acclaimed electro-gods The Knife
(another Swedish group, there must be something in the water up there, Swedish
music is amazing), and enamoured with their icy but gorgeous pop productions and
independent releases, she founder her own record label Konichiwa Records and
began recording songs for her fourth album.
The Knife were actually brought in to produce ‘Who’s That Girl’, one of many
highlights. ‘Handle Me’ (containing
the unbelievable put down “you're a selfish, narcissistic, psycho-freakin', boot-lickin'
creep”) and ‘Be Mine!’ are also excellent pop gems. She raps with surprising
lucidity and flow in her second language in ‘Konichiwa Blues’, and slows it down beautifully in the likes of ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Should Have Known’. That Robyn managed to produce (in both senses
of the word) such a great record even without the glorious synth-pop of ‘With Every Heartbeat’ marks her out as
one of 21st century music’s true treasures.
Albumaday... rating:
7/10
1. Curriculum
Vitae – 1:53
2. Who’s
That Girl – 3:47
3. Handle
Me – 3:47
4. Robotboy
– 3:31
5. Be
Mine! – 3:27
6. Bionic
Woman – 0:16
7. Crash
and Burn Girl – 3:35
8. Tomteverkstan
– 0:17
9. Konichiwa
Blues – 2:37
10. Bum
Like You – 3:42
11. Eclipse
– 3:29
12. Should
Have Known – 3:59
13. Anytime
You Like – 3:52
Listen to ‘Be Mine!’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PDNRTCuPyQ
Also released on the 27th April:
1987: R.E.M - Dead Letter Office
|
Also released on the 27th April:
1992: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Henry’s Dream
|
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