Album Reviews

Savvy pop fans have been pumping Robyn's self-titled album for years, even though it's just now [in late April 2008] finally seeing a proper U.S. release. The collection has held up very well; anyone approaching it freshly will be just as apt to be swept away as the people who discovered it upon its release in her native Sweden in 2005. Blending dance, disco, bubblegum, hip-hop and just about every other genre apt to be played at a club or house party, Robyn, seems likely to wind up as one of the enduring pop albums of the decade—a prediction that isn't so bold given how it's held up over these past several years.

There are a few slight missteps (i.e. "Robotboy"), and the ballads are heartfelt but forgettable by comparison to the sugar rush that surrounds them. But there's much less filler than typical for pop albums (or any albums). Robyn offers a slew of tracks that feel like the big hit, each with its own flavor. There's the straightforward, lightly orchestral "Be Mine!", the playfully brash and bawdy hip-hop, one-two punch of "Konichiwa Bitches" and "Cobrastyle" (the latter a Teddybears cover), and the brilliant electro-pop of "Who's That Girl?", a collaboration with indie favorites (and fellow Swedes) The Knife. And those still may not be the best tracks on the album. Over bleating, percussive synth-pop, she coos sweet nothings to a good-for-nothing on "Bum Like You." But she's hardly a softie or pushover; more typical is the chilled-out grind of "Handle Me," in which she dismisses a potential suitor as a bootlicking Nazi. Disappointed again by romance gone sour on the R&B-styled "Should Have Known," Robyn sums up the situation (repeatedly) with words that would make American divas blush: "I should have seen it coming / I should have fucking known."

Pop stars aren't supposed to talk like that, of course—and they probably aren't supposed to bust into boastful raps and they definitely, aren't supposed to work with weirdos like The Knife; the latter was a key factor in Robyn's defection from the majors and subsequent founding of her own label. This is the same Robyn, after all, who had a brief presence on the U.S. charts in the late '90s with the catchy but not exactly progressive "Show Me Love." Hopefully her independent streak—so abundantly rewarding on Robyn—will prove contagious to other pop princesses.

—Adam McKibbin
05.12.08