Robyn
Robyn
Release Date: Apr 29, 2008
Genre(s): Rock, Dance, Pop
Record label: Cherrytree
Music Critic Score
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Album Review: Robyn by Robyn
Exceptionally Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating A
If there were any justice, the divas who’ve been trading off the No. 1 slot — Mariah, Madonna, and newcomer Leona Lewis — would also be slugging it out with a platinum-blond dark horse from Scandinavia. Enter Sweden’s Robyn, who arrives Stateside with Robyn, an album that’s a veritable parade of Songs of the Summer. After landing a few mediocre teen-pop hits in the ’90s (namely ”Show Me Love”), she’s forsaken her white-soul dullness for hooky dance-pop greatness with help from electro-favoring fellow Swedes like the Teddybears and the Knife.
Based on rating 9/10
"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.
Based on rating 7.5/10
It takes a hardened soul to withstand the charms of an album that, just three songs in, contains the killer lyric: “My style is the bomb didi bomb di deng gi deng digi digi. ” Swedish popstress Robyn waited three years for a stateside release for this eponymous record, which originally saw the light of day back in 2005. Surprisingly, much of the material still sounds as fresh as it did back then, which is testament to both Robyn’s songwriting skills and to the company she keeps; the Knife and Swedish uber-producer Klas Ahlund, who has worked with Britney Spears, are among the producers lending a hand.