100. Robyn - Body Talk (Konichiwa, 2010)
Let's start with this album's first and most enduring track, “Dancing On My Own”, which depicts the moment you see your ex with someone else at the club. When I say enduring, it has been fourteen years since its release (and eight years since the cover by Calum Scott and Tiesto). Still, every day outside my work place there is about a one in three chance that I will hear it being gurned by a tragic lad with a guitar and a microphone, or maybe just a microphone, maybe neither. For these young men, this song is perhaps the best representation of the blues that there is in their time. It's the sound of spilled daiquiris, your mates trying to force you to calm down, someone you want to be the mother of your children telling you to “Fuck up, Darren” over and over again.
Scott's cover version, originating in “Britain's Got Talent” is predictably nude, so much Simon Cowell-era stuff is focused on the importance of being able to sing without accompaniment. It's also sad and self-flagellating in a “Take Me To Church” sort of way. Robyn's original is much more delightful, giving the listener the ability to find something gleeful in it's denied fulfilment. Somewhat importantly, it is very easily danced to as well. As a package, it is one of the best singles of its decade.
Robyn is the person who got famous enough to write and serve us this delight, but how? At age twelve, Robin Carlsson had already bagged the theme to TV's Du kan alltid bli nummer ett (You can always be number one). There is footage of a performance of this and it is something, the song sounding like a ropey MIDI of ABBA's “Take a Chance On Me”, while Sweden's answer to Noel Edmonds jumps out of a giant cake behind her.
Two years after this she switches to English, joins with producers Ghost and the duo Denniz PoP and Max Martin, who test their prototype technology for world domination on her. Out of this you get 1995's debut Robyn Is Here, where she sings R'n'B as a one-girl group over hip, buttery pop beats. It's a great fit and an assured debut.
The test having concluded successfully, the production duo indeed proceed to take over the world with this production sound, transforming the sonic backdrop of the Y2K pop era. Denniz died in 1998, but Max is still a titan among hitmakers with writing credits on “...Baby One More Time”, “Backstreet's Back”, “It's Gonna Be Me”, “So What”, “I Kissed A Girl”, “DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love” and “Blank Space”. As a side note, he's also the basis for Steven Colbert's character Alf Musik on the sitcom Girls5eva.
So where did all this leave Robyn? Robyn Is Here got a release in the States in 1997, two years after the original release date and she dutifully promoted it till it went Platinum, but it burnt her still-teenage brain out and she returned to Stockholm, tired of international superstardom. She settled for national regular stardom and for the next few years traded her Grammy nominations for Grammi nominations (that's what Sweden calls its Grammys, cute!). Along the way, she jettisoned her label for enhanced creative control, starting her own label Konichiwa. She had been co-penning all of her songs from the start, but it turned out that adding more of her own ideas and instincts was just the ticket. 2005's Robyn took her international once more with “Handle Me”, “Be Mine!” and “Every Heartbeat” showcasing a new confidence, range and development. She toured the world with it for nearly five years. By the time she re-entered the studio, Robyn was not short on new ideas.
Body Talk ended up with a run time of nearly ninety minutes, which got released as three EPs, then condensed down to an hour of highlights for the final release. Overall it has more focus and aesthetic unity than its predecessor, and every song shoots for being single-grade, with a pretty high hit-rate.
Structurally, it's a mid-tempo dance pop record, referencing Moroder (“Indestructible”), Kraftwerk (“Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do”) and the like, but with the sheen of the modern and the floaty coating of sprinkles that you get on Royksopp records (Royksopp actually show up on one track). This is not a record defined by its solid foundation though, it's all about putting Robyn's voice front and centre as the master of ceremonies. She's a fun character, still relishing the freedom she's found on her label, which she promotes several times in spite of being its only artist. Her vocal tracks are skilled and unpredictable: she's unafraid to mix things up, throwing herself into reggae and rap, in spite of severely being Swedish. Snoop Dogg rides “U Should Know Better” with her, making his first of at least four (!) appearances on the Apple 100 List, and it's a comfy ride too. Amusingly, Robyn had previously turned down an Akon feature because he is “wack”. Across the housier stuff, a broad lyrical theme is re-opening ones heart after a break-up, but it's not a tell-all, instead giving the listener just enough information to feel it. It successfully breaks the barrier between her and the audience, making her struggles our own.
What Kind of Splash Did It Make?
Robyn didn't release another record for eight years. She probably didn't need to. Pop, especially the aesthetically current sort, is inherently something that is supplanted by successors with a ruthless turnaround. In the case of this record, something else was top of the pops pretty soon afterwards, but that's the point. It's clearly more broadly emotionally resonant than its competitors, especially seeing as “Dancing On My Own” has touched more than the girls and the gays, and it’s a more solid album too. It has influenced future pop makers who desire inward-looking floor-fillers. Pure pop is about moments and feelings and this concentrates both very well, earning its place as opener to a list like this.
Where To Go From Here?
For similar slinky house pop, maybe Kylie's Fever. Sally Shapiro is another swede who fucks with italo disco music, albeit in a more laid back way, love her album Guilty Pleasures. The Knife were a pretty big influence on Robyn, so maybe check them out too.