By snoadmin
Whether you remember Robyn as the teenage R&B queen bee from about 10 years ago, or by her latest doings as an indie songbird bopping around with fellow Swede all-star performers on YouTube about ten seconds ago, just make sure you know one thing: Robyn is boss of the pop scene.
Britney, Rihanna, move over.
With Robyn’s recent self-titled release, off her personally established Konichiwa Records label, Robyn blends the perfect dose of synthesized pop, electro pop and R&B to make for a nearly flawless sound with a modern twist. The result is fresh, empowered and, as she’d call it, “titanium-strong.”
“She sucker-punched Einstein, outsmarted Ali and even out super-freaked Rick James,” boasts the opening song, “Curriculum Vitae,” where a deep, authoritative man’s voice suggests you to turn up the volume “cause you cannot stop this, you can’t escape.” And for the entire CD, however minor or playful those words may be, you’re convinced: Robyn is the “super foxxiest female ever,” she “split the atom, invented the x-ray,” and is the “lioness of Juda.”
Robyn shimmers through a soundscape of 15 new hits. Each song is as pop as pop gets and each song could easily succeed as a hit.
It reminds you that whatever has happened in Robyn’s career, however derailed she’s been from the teen-pop sensation phenomenon she was in the days of “Show Me Love,” Robyn rises through the smoke and clouds with an interlocking self-awareness and edginess. She sets the pop-queen blueprint in a fashion like in the days when she was Britney before Britney was Britney.
Even when sporting an asymmetrical, razor-edged hairdo that hints some kinds of androgyny, she creates a spectacle of putting down douchebags and bums alike.
“I’ll hammer your toe like a pediatrician/ Saw you in half like I’m a magician/ Tear you down like I’m a demolition/ Count you out like a mathematician” – this is Robyn on “Konichiwa Bitches,” warning whoever will be scared, should be.
In the corresponding music video, Robyn exhibits a more good-humored insinuation, bopping around in techincolor costumes everything from an Eskimo to bumble bee, which breaks away from her Stockholm standard gray, industrial sharpness.
Robyn disquiets in a racy and hyperactive “Cobrastyle,” progresses to a smooth “Handle Me,” gets funky and anti-Britney in “Crash and Burn Girl,” and excites with catchy hits like “Bum Like You,” a hit so reminiscent of the simple, unforgettable songs that saturated the music scene before the digital, pixilated movement in the music world that took over in the late ’90s.
“Be Mine!” comes off a lot like “Bum Like You,” memorable and catchy, though it’s obvious that Robyn and co-writer Klas Åhlund settled into a teenage-like mindset for the sincere but crushed lyrics: “And I am helpless sometimes, wishing’s just no good/ ’cause you don’t see me like I wish you would.”
Teens will love this hit once it hits the radio, and should. Robyn’s candy pop is strong and tasty.
Other tastier, anthem-esque tunes like the little but gem-like “With Every Heartbeat” beeps through with infectious lyrics dancing on the surface of a dense, sparkly soundscape of electronics and violins.
In the same way, “Who’s That Girl” and “Dream On” smear Robyn all over the sparkly map of good dance music.
And just when you’d become suspicious of Robyn’s all-too-bold confidence and music-making virtuosity, she strips all sound and puts all voice and emotion into “Eclipse,” a tender tune for those listeners who obsess and swoon.
Working with the best songwriters from Sweden, then putting out the best pop CD to come into existence in the past three or four years, Robyn has re-emerged and owns the pop scene finally.
We’re all bound to be one of her Konichiwa bitches soon!
