The people making the best pop music in the world are typically also among the world's biggest pop stars. Alas, Robyn is not even close to upper-tier status, despite being responsible for some of the most indelible dance-pop of the past half-decade. "Be Mine!", "With Every Heartbeat", "Dancing on My Own"-- in a perfect world these are all global smash hits. ("Heartbeat" did actually reach no. 1 in the UK.) But for many reasons (being perhaps wrongly pegged and promoted as a leftfield artist, the scattershot nature of the record industry, etc.) she's stuck in a strange netherworld-- embraced by indie fans that adore her but just barely out of reach, or earshot, of the much bigger audience that should.
This could change, and Robyn seems to be doing everything in her power to make that happen. She'll rock a high-profile performance at this week's VMAs and is dropping not one, not two, but three records this year as part of her Body Talk series. This feels at first like a strange way to release ostensibly one album, but as my colleague Tom Ewing recently pointed out in The Guardian, it actually makes a good deal of sense. It allows her to get songs out quickly as she records them, gives music to fans in easily digestible 30-minute chunks, and ideally beats newcomers over the head to the point that they'll finally take notice.
The first Body Talk installment found Robyn doing what she does best-- drawing great work from various producers, balancing experimentation with craft, and occupying the emotional territory between heartbreak and self-empowerment. Pt. 2 steps away from this formula some: the range of sounds and feelings she explores is a good deal thinner, but the album has more spontaneity, attitude, and traditional pop power than its predecessor. Where on Pt. 1 Robyn messed around with Jamaican sounds and Swedish folk, here she primarily sticks with the quick-moving, clubby synth-pop that is her calling card.
The album's first half is especially good. Here Robyn sounds fierce and confident, the vulnerability of her previous work mostly absent. One moment she's an encouraging den mother: "Little star, I got you. You'll be okay", she tells us on "In My Eyes". The next she's an all-inclusive party-starter, repping matriarchs and cross-dressers alike: "This one's for the granny, take a bow... Come on all you trannies, click your heels for me" on "Include Me Out". Sonically these tracks are airtight, and you've really got to commend producer Klas Åhlund for his almost workmanlike ability to keep churning out this level of quality. Old pal Kleerup takes the reigns on "In My Eyes", which is strong but not his best, and elsewhere Diplo lends a hand with "Criminal Intent".
It's here where Pt. 2 takes a small-but-noticeable dip in stature from the very high bar Robyn's set with her previous work. Teaming with Diplo worked so well on the sauntering "Dancehall Queen" from Pt. 1, but here the collaboration sputters out. "We Dance to the Beat" performs the same role as Pt. 1's "Don't Fucking Tell Me What to Do"-- sort of spoken-word hype-up jam-- and is equally quirky but less brash. The only other complaint about Pt. 2 is the lack of a classic single on par with "Dancing on My Own" or "Heartbeat". The closest we get is "Hang with Me". Still, songs like that don't come around all that often, and it might be unreasonable to expect one from her every time out.
Minor quibbles and missteps aside, Body Talk Pt. 2 is a perfectly solid-- and occasionally awesome-- record. The surprise jam is Snoop Dogg collaboration "U Should Know Better". Dude sounds better than he has in years on this one, his laid-back cadence a perfect counterpoint to the song's grinding synth work. Funny, too, since it's not his only pop duet this summer-- and the insidious "California Gurls" is the one that is the global hit. Stand both next to each other and you get a clear illustration of the gulf between Robyn and someone like Katy Perry. No contest. But even if you want to compare her to more legitimate pop stars like La Roux or Lady GaGa, take "Love Kills". Aesthetically this song could appear in either of the latter's catalogs, and in either's hands it could be a hit single.
It's got to frustrate Robyn on some level, this disconnect, but she rarely shows it-- she's too cool, having too much fun. And of course there is a strong independent spirit that stems from her bucking of the major-label system back in the mid-2000s that is still very much alive in her music. At one point in the record, though, she seems to address this point directly. "We dance to the beat of your brains not evolving fast enough," she blurts out in "We Dance to the Beat". The line is mixed in with a bunch of sillier ones about apartment evictions and "bad kissers clicking teeth," but it's hard not to read it as a shot at the mainstream, a statement of purpose, or both.
