Review: ‘Robyn’ by Robyn

Well, here’s a thing. An example of how free access to music on the Internet actually encourages people to buy cds. I am of the original Napster generation – I was a member of that community and downloaded music illegally (though at terribly low bitrates) from it. I don’t do that any more (for various reasons, I have come to prefer ‘owning’ music, in physical form, as cds), but I make use of the Internet to explor current and past music in new ways.

So, at the gym recently, a song – "With Every Heartbeat" by Robyn, has been popular on the fre music channel they show on the tellyies. I had the song in my had last weekend and went on YouTube to watch the video. So, of course, I was subsequently directed to a number of other music videos by the same artist. I learned (with the help of Wikipedia, the best site of the Internet in my opinion) that she isn’t some blonde nobody with a high-pitched voice used in a dance video, but a longstanding Swedish pop star, with three or four albums under her belt. A couple of other songs were very good, so I decided to buy the newly-released British eponymous album.

So today, I went to Tesco with my mum, and it was cheaper than anywhere else.

The album is actually a lot more urban than I was expecting. The intro track is very much "here I am, this is my inflated persona, don’t mess with me". Her voice ranges from high and light, to dark and sultry. The ‘discovery’ track, cureently making its mark in Britain, is actually atypical – she’s much more fiesty, knowing, and dirty than it would suggest. I like the metallic synth-pop rhythms. I like the self-assurance from a delicate blonde woman, and I like the overall mixture of easily-digested pop/dance and pricklier urban and more experimental tracks.

In general, a great effort, and I’m glad another talented Swedish musician has made her mark internationally.