Robyn

One Liner: Swedish dance pop star (who stays under the radar here in America)

Wikipedia Genre: Electropop, synth-pop, dance-pop, R&B (early).
Home: Stockholm, Sweden

Poster Position: 1

Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts:  I know that she is massively popular, from the way that Rolling Stone breathlessly discusses her moves.  She's been around for a while, with her first hits coming back in 1995 (when she was 16 years old), and several Grammy nominations over the years.  No Grammy wins, but several GAFFA awards and some Grammis (the Swedish Grammys, not even making this up).  Pitchfork has both of her last two albums as Best New Music and loves her loads.

I originally wrote this post as a stream of consciousness sort of thing, written as I streamed through all of her albums.  But decided I needed to re-write it to make it a better explanation of her music.  It is a kind of weird progression.

Robin Miriam Carlsson first popped up as a teenager, with her presumptively named Robyn Is Here.  1995.  This music is totally different from her more recent albums.  That early stuff is some wannabe TLC crap - like sassy R&B with some vocal bending fireworks.  Although, this early album contains the two songs in her whole catalog that actually rang a bell to me.  
Most of the songs on that debut album are in the 200k range or so, except for one that appears to be the big hit, "Show Me Love," with 22.5 million streams.

Oh, hey, I know that song.  Weird.  I never would have connected that song to the same electronic dance lady that her newer albums show.  I swear I downloaded this track on Napster or something in the late nineties (as well as the other track from this album "Do You Know (What It Takes)").  According to Wikipedia, this was her last charting single on the Hot 100, where it topped out at #7.  Which is kind of depressing, that her last charting singles happened in 1995 when she was just starting, so no charting tracks in the 24 years since then...
Wikipedia also says that this song appeared on the Sabrina, Teenage Witch soundtrack.  My middle daughter has been watching reruns of that show on Netflix for the past few months and my God that show is terrible.  Pretty OK song.  Significantly better than the rest of this album.  Several of these songs have made me actually cringe.  The title track just made me say "ugggghhhhh this fuckin' sucks" out loud in my office.

From reading articles about Robyn, she seems like a cult favorite.  Like there are people who have decided that the normal American pop star singing this same brand of dance music is not cool, but because Robyn is Swedish and a little under-the-radar, they're very into her.  That might be the thing with RS and Pitchfork as well?

1999's My Truth is also in that mid-90's R&B wheelhouse.  Like some generic ass Aaliyah shit.  Definitely not my jam.  I'm going to say that is my least favorite of all of these albums.  Which is almost hard to say since the first album is so bad.

She took a little break here, as the next album is 2005's Robyn.  But here you can definitely feel an adjustment in her sound and a new direction.  The 2005 album is making me think of the Gwen Stefani album from around that time - Love Angel Music Baby - she has an almost rap style to her lyrics, and is doing some jokey stuff like "Konichiwa Bitches" and the "bombdiggybombdidangdiggy" type scatting in "Cobrastyle."  And she goes with a weird, and kinda funny, angle.  Tracks like "Bum Like You" or "Robotboy" are funny.  The top track from that 2005 album is "With Every Heartbeat," at 29.8 million streams.

I'm very split by all of this.  On the one hand, the longing in those lyrics, and the weird violin chunk in the midst and those atmospheric synths, I like it.  Actually, shaft that, I like this song.  It's a little earnest, out of line with a lot of the rest of this album.  But right after that track, I get "Who's That Girl," which is generic and not good.

The difference between the old Robyn - all crossover R&B and vocal gymnastics with no humor - and the new Robyn - dance pop girl with some funny lyrics - is jarring.  I much prefer the new version of her to this wannabe-background-singer-for-Puff-Daddy-garbage.

Now, another big gap - seems to be her thing to take a long break between each disc.  Also, she did a weird release thing with this one.  Body Talk is the 2010 album, but she apparently released it in three Body Talk EPs throughout the year, that were then joined together later into the full album.  Although, Spotify only has Body Talk Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 available.

I gotta say, this album just misses me entirely.  So much of it is a very generic-seeming, one-note aggressive dance music with high BPM that gets very exhausting to me. Like "Hang With Me," where the beat is just a very basic thump bap thing with some Tron ass synths over the top.  It feels like I'm supposed to be European and sweaty and ready to dance until exhaustion.  It's exhausting.  Better than the crappy R&B, but not by much.  Until the last song on Part 2, which is an empowerment anthem over strings.  I will say that there is one different track - Snoop Dogg shows up on one track and does his best to keep up, like a small dog leashed to an interstellar space shuttle powered by rainbows.  Actually makes me think of some weird Gorillaz track.  I do not enjoy this album.  

Overall, the album kind of makes me think of late-career Madonna, where she uses too many effects on her voice (that doesn't need it).  Looking at something like "Cry When You Get Older."  Nothing seems interesting or new or different, they all just have a sameness and generic dance-beat sense to them.  But, her biggest hit is on this album - "Dancing On My Own," with 133.5 million streams.

What am I missing?  That just seems like the most generic dance beat ever to me.  And the lyrics are good - nothing special, just another unrequited love song.  Pitchfork somehow called this album and 8.7 and said it was Best New Music.  "However, the highlight from this Year of Robyn remains the gorgeous "Dancing on My Own". What's especially remarkable is that there was any room for improvement: The track appears here as an amped-up "radio remix" with bonus synths giving the lovelorn chorus an extra wallop."  I guess I'm absolutely missing the boat here - don't hear this as gorgeous or remarkable. 

Her 2018 album Honey was the fourth most popular album of 2018 on year end lists.  I tried it out and was pretty meh about it.  "This one might be a consensus pick, I know that RS had creamed itself over how amazing this album was.  From my view, its aiight.  Kind of a throwback to music I never really liked in the 90's.  One big positive for the album?  Only 9 songs and 40 minutes.  I'll pass."  I've tried it a few more times in the past two days, and my opinion hasn't changed.  But, as I finish the hell that is Robyn is Here (and the a cappella version of "I Wish"), I'd take these new songs all day in comparison.

Honey has that stream count that is indicative of an artist with buzz who people don't actually end up liking.  The first track has 23.7 million streams.  Then the stream count drops off a cliff to the 4 million range, and continues dropping (except for the album closer, which has 12.8 million streams).  That very much looks like the kind of thing where someone reads that this new album is amazing, hears the first song, and moves on with their life.  I was going to give you that final song on the album, but it has a very different vibe from the rest of the album - kind of sounds like that Blood Orange guy - so I'll give you the first song instead.  This is "Missing U," with 23.7 million streams.

It's fine.  I just don't see anything in there that feels vital or new or interesting.  The beat and synths feel uninspired, just more electronic redux of sounds we've heard in the 80's and 90's, and while her voice is really nice, I just don't see anything here to draw me in.  

Which makes me feel weird.  Why is there widespread critical acclaim for this album, and she is up on the headliner space of this ACL poster, and yet nothing in any of this holds any interest to me at all?  I keep listening to see if something changes, but it just doesn't.  I don't get it.