27th April - Robyn's Robyn

Artist – Album: Robyn – Robyn

Released:  27^th 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 27^th 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 21^st 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 27^th April:

1987: R.E.M - Dead Letter Office

Also released on the 27^th April:

1992: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Henry’s Dream