FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
PHOTO CREDIT: Clare Shilland
Part Nineteen: Robyn
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I am not sure why it has taken me so long to…
include Robyn in one of my features like this – I am pretty sure I haven’t! -, but she is an artist that is going to be an icon of the future – she may well be already. Check out her Facebook page, and follow her on Twitter; go see her videos on YouTube, and follow her on Instagram. You can also hear her music on Spotify, and get involved with this wonderful artist. I will look through her career in a minute but, as it is a new year, there are gigs coming up for Robyn. I wonder why she has not been asked to headline Glastonbury before but, as we know she won’t this year, I do hope other festivals make her a headliner! One festival Robyn will be attending is London’s Lovebox :
“The London festival has shared the complete program for its 18th edition.
Tierra Whack, Robyn and Kaytranada have been added to the bill at this year’s edition of Lovebox, which takes place at London’s Gunnersbury Park over three days from June 12 – 14 .
They join Tyler, The Creator, Charli XCX, FKA twigs, Little Simz and many more for the festival’s biggest lineup yet”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Luke Gilford for GARAGE Magazine
Also, adding to the above, Robyn is to be crowned Songwriter of the Decade at the NME Awards! It has been a busy and wonderful career for Robyn who, since her debut in the 1990s, has grown and evolved as an artist. Born in 1979, the Swedish artist, songwriter, and producer burst onto the scene with her 1995 debut album, Robyn Is Here. Her latest album, Honey, was released in 2018, and it is a fantastic album. I shall come to that later, but I need to start at the beginning – or when Robyn was fifteen. She started her Pop career at this age, and she signed with RCA Records in 1994. She released her debut single, You’ve Got That Somethin’ in Sweden and, later that year, she got a breakthrough with Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect).
The singles would form part of her album, Robyn Is Here, in 1995. Although the start of her career was modest, she did lend her voice to a series of projects – she was Sweden’s pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997. That debut album stands as a fascinating and strong work from an artist who, right from the off, created something stunning. It peaked at number-right in the Swedish chart, and it was certified double-platinum by the Swedish Recording Industry Association. Some debate when Robyn’s breakthrough came. Some say it was when she released her debut; others say a bit later in her career. No matter where your mind is, one has to admit that her debut is a fantastic offering. Although her debut arrived in 1995, we waited for four years until she followed it up with My Truth. Robyn co-wrote all of the album’s fourteen tracks, and the album was the culmination of a period of movement and transition. Whilst she was in Sweden for a lot of the time, she went to the U.S. several times to work on the album. Robyn felt it was important to contribute to all the tracks, and the idea for all the songs came from Robyn. Working with a range of producers, her second album is more experimental and varied than her debut. Whereas her debut was more Pop-based, My Truth brings together House and Rock vibes with Pop and R&B. If her debut was too heavy on R&B and Pop, the expansive and explorative My Truth is a lot stronger. Maybe the stronger material was a case of Robyn experiencing more and bringing that to the music. Electric and Play are incredible singles, whilst there are some underrated gems like My Truth still sound great. Everything from the relationship between love and hate and feeling misunderstood are covered on the album.
Reviews were pretty solid for My Truth, but I am not bringing any in at the moment, as I will scatter reviews through this feature to show how critics took to her albums. I think 2002’s Don’t Stop the Music was the first real breakthrough for Robyn. Released through BMG in Sweden, it peaked at number-two in the charts there. Singles such as Keep This Fire Burning and Don’t Stop the Music helped get the album worldwide acclaim and attention. I will bring in a review of Robyn’s eponymous album of 2005, as it is a terrific thing. In 2003, Robyn left her Jive Records label, as she felt she had little artistic freedom. I think Robyn was being marketed in the U.S. as a Pop artist like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, and there was a feeling that she had compromised and not produced work true to who she was. In 2003, Robyn also discovered the brother-and-sister duo The Knife whilst record shopping. She bought herself out of her existing contract and, reluctant to sign with a big label – inspired by The Knife – she started her own label, Konichiwa Records. This allowed Robyn the freedom to create and record as she felt fit. The lyrics are very strong and self-confident; I think Robyn said she returned to her youth, and that feeling of being on the subway and listening to Hip-Hop. There is also a fragility to the album; a mix of the strong and reflective. Maybe it was the break from her old record company that meant Robyn resonated harder than previous albums. Here is AllMusic’s take:
"I present to you/Unleashed in the East/Best dressed in the West/Sorted in the North/Without a doubt in the South/the queen of queen bees," intones the booming voice on Robyn's opening track, "Curriculum Vitae." It's not bragging if you can back it up, and Robyn does just that, channeling all the frustration of her creative differences with her previous labels into a freewheeling, accomplished pop album that is so fresh that it could pass for a debut -- and, as the first release for her own label, Konichiwa Records, it is a debut of sorts.
Robyn feels like she crammed everything she couldn't do before into a space that can barely contain it, starting with "Konichiwa Bitches," a sassy hip-pop manifesto with a title that could very well have been the first thing she said to her old bosses once she got her own label set up. On this song and the rest of the album, Robyn sounds equally empowered and irresistible, and doesn't hesitate to tell off labels, trifling boys, or anyone else who stands in the way of what she wants. She doesn't mince words on "Handle Me," but she purrs "you're a selfish, narcissistic, psycho-freakin', boot-lickin' creep" so sweetly that it stings even more. And even on the songs where she isn't so strong, like "Bum Like You" and "I Should Have Known"'s catchy recriminations, she's never the less than self-aware. She has a few words for the ladies as well: the cautionary tale "Crash and Burn Girl" is one of the album's funkiest tracks.
"Who's That Girl," the song that her old label didn't want to release, and sparked her emancipation from them, is also here, and its distinctive skipping, tropics-go-Nordic rhythms and aggressively buzzy synths -- courtesy of the Knife -- sound great, but it isn't even the best song here. That honor goes to one of two songs that really hit home that true independence can be the hardest thing. "Be Mine!" nails the complicated, sad yet liberated feelings surrounding an impossible relationship, celebrating "the sweet pain of watching your back as you walk away" as it propels itself on a buoyant rhythm. "With Every Heartbeat," the epic, Kleerup-produced breakup song that was Robyn's breakthrough single in the U.K., pushes her forward on percolating, escalating synths and strings until it peaks with the chorus echoing all around her. Not every independent moment on Robyn is so lonely, however. The way the album moves from whimsical tracks like the Teddybears cover "Cobrastyle" or "Robotboy" to subtle ballads like "Eclipse" and "Any Time You Like" just emphasizes that this album is a space for expression for and by Robyn. And like any self-titled album should, Robyn defines what she's all about. Even if it took a few years to put together the label and album (and a few more to get the album released everywhere), this is the pop tour de force that Robyn has always had in her.
If the first decade of the 21st century was Robyn finding her feet and making music on her own terms, she began the next with huge productiveness and intent – three albums were released in 2010 alone! Body Talk Pt. 1 was her first installment, and Robyn was eager to get music out there, having left a gap of five years between records. Many artists would pace albums out and take a few years between them. Robyn felt that she had all these great songs, so why wait?! Robyn’s thoughts were that she could release material and tour albums; she could then record more. If that sounds like a rather samey and machine-like, it is Robyn displaying a real passion. She was in fine creative form, and that shows on Body Talk Pt. 1. The albums songs were the first songs she finished during the previous spell of writing/recording. Here is what The Guardian had to say when they reviewed the album:
“It's possible that Robyn, the Swedish singer who reached No 1 with With Every Heartbeat in 2007, is a little bit too interesting ever to be a contemporary pop star. Certainly, opening a mini-album – the first of three she plans to release this year – with a song called Don't Fucking Tell Me What to Do and closing with a traditional Swedish ballad, Jag Vet en Dejlig Rosa, is not in the Simon Cowell playbook. But those bookends are clues to both her defiant independence of spirit and her versatility within the pop idiom, and show precisely why she should be treasured. Of the other six songs, Dancing On My Own's pulsing synths and electronic percussion manage to sound both jackbooted and ineffably melancholy, Cry When You Get Older is blessed with a melody that sounds as if it came from Celtic folk music but is here reshaped into sophisticated electropop, while the piano-and-strings ballad Hang With Me is blessed with a startlingly sincere performance that adds weight even to its lyrical clichés”.
I will bring in other albums soon but, to this point, I have not sourced from any interviews. 2010 was the first year, I think, when Robyn started to really talk about her music in positive and passionate tones. I came across a great feature from Dummy, who put Robyn under the spotlight:
“In a way, it’s funny that the Pop music Robyn started making in her mid-twenties would capture those teenage feelings of longing, loving and danced out frustration more authentically than anything she released as a teenager. I guess because when you grow up you realise those feelings never really end; you’re just better acquainted with them and subsequently more equipped to give them shape. While the Pop landscape has changed considerably over the last few years, as David discusses in his review of ‘Body Talk Pt.1’, Robyn is more relevant than ever and that’s because of her biggest strength – that authenticity. Big songs grab attention but staying power in Pop music comes down to the person and their ability to resonate with so many people across a whole multitude of walks and stages of life. Music industry ideas about universal appeal often dictate a generic approach, the something-for-everyone route, which is why much commercial Pop pedals sanitised emotion. But human hearts and minds don’t work like that when it comes to music. It’s the songs that break the rules (we can hazard a guess that it was Who’s That Girl’s subject matter of deep-rooted female insecurity that freaked out industry heads), pairing a catchy hook with a taboo subject, that are the ones we champion. Robyn has always known this. After all, this is the woman who wrote her first song aged 11 about her parents divorce. She gives voice to awkward emotions, the ones we all struggle to keep a lid on. That’s why her music continues to connect, and what makes Dancing On My Own such a perfect Pop song – at its heart is a pain we all recognise and that makes it powerful.
IN THIS PHOTO: Robyn in 2010/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
This album is a lot more clubby – there’s techno, dancehall, electro – I was wondering if you felt dance music, or club music, afforded you more freedom?
Yeah, I think actually after making With Every Heartbeat I found a way to be pop but also emotional in a way that I don’t really did before. I think that’s steered this album in the direction that it’s gone. It’s like the whole is a continuation of the last album but definitely of With Every Heartbeat as well. It was obvious to me that I wanted to take this album to a four to the floor world because of that song.
I completely relate to the feeling of, when you’re at you’re lowest, wanting to dance all night. Obviously something that Dancing On My Own continues. What I also liked was the theme of growing up in suburbia and wanting to escape. It feels like the night-time world is a place you can do that.
Yeah, it’s funny with clubs. It’s a grown-up playground where people just let everything hang out and get stupid drunk. It’s where you let your emotions out if you’re happy or unhappy, sad or in love – whatever it is, it tends to come out when you go out. I think it’s an important place for our generation; it has a role in our everyday lives that you could almost compare to a church or something that has a bigger meaning to people”.
Hardly pausing for breath, Body Talk Pt. 2 arrived a few months after the first chapter. Released in September 2010, it is the second part of the trilogy. Whilst the albums are closer to mini-albums than full albums, the consistency and quality is exceptional. Collaborating with Klas Åhlund, Kleerup, Savage Skulls, Diplo, Snoop Dogg, and Niggaracci, the songs for this second part were conceived and developed whilst she was working on Body Talk Pt. 1.
This is what The A.V. Club had to say about Body Talk Pt. 2:
“After ending Body Talk Pt. 1 on a low-and-slow note, Robyn bounds back onto the dance floor on Pt. 2 with seven breathless, synth-driven gems before taking another respite with the orchestral album closer “Indestructible,” which will likely receive the same sort of up-tempo reworking on Pt. 3 that “Hang With Me” gets this time around. Like any good sequel, Pt. 2 dials up its predecessors’ best parts: “Hang With Me” reprises the anthemic, emotional beats of Pt. 1’s “Cry When You Get Older”; “Criminal Intent” ratchets up the sexiness of “Fembot” and adds a Peaches-like electro-bounce; and the album highlight, “U Should Know Better,” has the same club-bumping energy and smirking sass of Robyn’s “Cobrastyle,” with a Snoop Dogg cameo as the cherry on top. Only “We Dance To The Beat” hews a little too close to the robotic chill of “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do” to avoid feeling like a retread, but overall, Body Talk has more than enough life in it to power through into Pt. 3”.
In 2010, the third part of the trilogy arrived in the form of Body Talk. Released in November 2010, this is the best-reviewed and considered album of the three. I am not sure why that is, but the fact it has songs like Indestructible didn’t hurt! The former is one of the best songs of the 2010s, and it is Robyn’s signature track. I love the album, and I think it was the moment Robyn entered the next phase of her career; when her worked stepped up another gear and that lack of big label interference paid dividends! There are lots of great reviews for Body Talk, but I want to return to The A.V. Club:
“With Body Talk Pt. 3, Robyn caps an exceptional run of EPs that combine to form what is hands-down the best dance-pop album of the year. (A compilation of most of these songs, called simply Body Talk, is also available.) At only five tracks, it’s the shortest of the bunch, but it also might be the best, a short, sweet burst of dance-floor delirium that proves there’s still room for smart, mature songwriting and heartfelt performance in the high-gloss world of club music.
Unlike with the first two parts, there’s no space given over to a solitary ballad or minimalist electro pulse; Pt. 3 storms out of the gate with a joyfully pumped-up version of the Pt. 2 ballad “Indestructible,” and it doesn’t let up from there. “Time Machine” reunites Robyn with fellow Swede Max Martin for the first time since 1997’s “Show Me Love,” and the result is just as infectious, and hat-tips Back To The Future to boot. “Stars 4-Ever” and “Get Myself Together” nod back to the ’80s and ’90s, respectively, mining deep veins of nostalgia without being overly retro-cute. The record reaches its apex at its midpoint with “Call Your Girlfriend,” which turns the breakup-anthem conceit on its ear in a manner that makes getting dumped seem inspiring. Over the course of Body Talk, Robyn has proved that there’s real emotion to be found among the ones and zeros of electronic music, and Pt 3. is the culmination of that outlook: euphoric, personal, and inspirational to the last beat”.
Given the fact Robyn put out so much work in 2010, it is understandable she left it until 2018 to bring out Honey. She began work on Honey in 2015 following the death of a close friend and collaborator, Christina Falk. She also went through a breakup, so it was a difficult time for Robyn. She reached out to Joseph Mount of Metronomy, and they collaborated on a few occasions. More involved in the production side, Robyn recorded the album at studios in Stockholm, London, Paris, New York, and Ibiza. I think Honey is a lot softer and more sensual than any previous album. There are hot and electric moments, but the feel one gets from Honey is a more sensuous and warmer sensation. Honey was one of the most-acclaimed albums of 2018, and it was definitely in my top-five! There are some interviews that I want to source from, but I will bring in a review from The Telegraph first of all
“Middle age is a difficult transition for a pop star. Yet at 39, it feels like Honey could be the moment Robyn gets her due as an artist in complete command of her medium. Deftly sketched lyrics of relationship travails glide across irresistible beats on gossamer melodies, driven by nimble bass figures, sparkling synthetic strings and off-kilter, earworm noises.
Because It’s in the Music evokes the bittersweet addictiveness of pop, memorialising a break-up tune (“The day they released it/ Was the day you released me/ And even though it kills me/ I still play it every night”).
Halfway through the album, she switches audaciously, between the sadness of Baby Forgive Me to the dynamic empowerment of Send to Robyn Immediately, when the same lyric is transformed from plea to ultimatum (“If you’ve got something to say/ Say it tonight”). From there, the only way is up, on a journey through sensual reconciliation (Honey) and joyous romance (Between the Lines) playing out on the delightfully buoyant Ever Again (“never gonna be broken-hearted, ever again”).
Robyn is not a vocalist given to diva-style over-singing but the feeling in her songs is utterly transparent. “All these emotions are out of date,” she gently laments on Human Being – but real emotion never gets old. Honey is moving in more senses than one, a hypnotically groovy dance floor opus, set to the beat of Robyn’s tender heart”.
I think, in terms of peaks, 2018 was another one for Robyn. Again, she had found new ground and proved that, twenty-three years after her debut album, she was one of the finest and most original artists around. There are a lot of interviews online from 2018, and there have been features since then I want to first bring in an interview from The Standard, where Robyn talked about Honey in terms of rediscovering the purpose of music:
“It was all about rediscovering her purpose. Or, the purpose of her music. “I thought: ‘What is so special about me that I have to take up all this space in people’s consciousness and tell them about my feelings? What can I offer them?’
“Maybe that’s why I like people like David Bowie and Prince. I seriously feel like Bowie was an astronaut who went into space and experienced things and brought back these... treasures,” she says, beaming.
The psychoanalysis, she concludes, made the music better. “In a way, that was my space trip.”
It was the album’s title track that was the breakthrough. She had sent an unfinished version to superfan Lena Dunham, who had requested something new for the soundtrack to last year’s final season of her hit TV comedy Girls. Its airing caused clamorous excitement — was the Robyn comeback finally afoot?
It wasn’t, and she admits with another laugh that she found that expectation really stressful. “Part of me was thinking, ‘Maybe I should just release Honey the way it is. Am I just being silly, thinking I can do something special here?’ But I decided not to, to try and get to where I wanted to get to. And I got there, I think.”
Robyn will be touring next year, although certainly not to the extent of the three-year trek she undertook in support of Body Talk. But certainly the creativity of this daughter of experimental Swedish theatre folk is, once more, firing on all cylinders.
“Honey was the first song I wrote where I was really enjoying myself again, after questioning the idea of being an artist,” she admits”.
It is clear that the Robyn of her 1995 debut was different to the one on 2018’s Honey. Of course, a lot of time had passed, but I think there is more than that. She seems like a more confident artist now, and I actually think Honey is her finest work. Few artists experience that upward trend and get stronger as they get older. There is a softness on Honey that was not necessarily present as prolifically beforehand. This interview from Vice reveals more:
“This album is a lot softer than what you’ve done before. Why do you think it came out like that?
I was in a very vulnerable state. Before, my go-to way of dealing with challenges was to push through them, but I don’t think I could with this. When I wrote this album, I was really sad and reflective. My instinct was to calm down and try to be more present in my life. I had to find a more comfortable, relaxed space where I could learn how to take care of myself. When I started making music, it was from a place of doing things to make me feel good; listening to music I like, dancing. So I kind of had to seduce myself again – not push, but lure things out of myself.
Did you find therapy helped you get back to a place in which you could express certain feelings and experiences, for this album?
I think that’s what therapy is about, figuring out how you feel, not necessarily solving anything directly but understanding how you feel. It’s a long and complicated, indirect process. I was in therapy for another three years after that.
Pretty soon afterwards I was able to write again, once I’d made space for it. My therapy started working and I was writing properly and spending all my time on the album by mid-2015. But it was also a quiet period for me. I was back in Stockholm in the studio, sometimes travelling and seeing friends, but I wasn’t working all the time. It was very luxurious in a way, to be able to do that”.
If you can see Robyn play live, then do so, as she is a tremendous performer. I cannot wait to see what comes next and whether we see any new material in 2020. After the acclaim Honey received, that must have resonated and spurred her on. Maybe she is focusing on touring this year, but I’d like to think there will be something out later in the year. Robyn is one of the music world’s finest artists, and she has inspired so many other artists. This phenomenal artist will continue to rule the music scene…
FOR years to come.