For all it’s great pop value, Robyn‘s “Dancing On My Own” sure is depressing. After so many listens, you kinda want to reach in the speakers, work your way past the Moroder strobe synths-as-prison bars that are trapping the heartbroken and shattered pop tart on the same dancefloor where her ex is playing tonsil hockey with his new arm-candy, and give her a good shake: He’s moved on and so should you Robyn.
In the remixing hands of fellow Swede Copycat at least, some small flickering of hope can be felt on the horizon. Yeah, she’s still hurt knowing that she’s no longer the girl he’s taking home, but when set against Copycat’s 70′s-era lite-rock breeziness, her repeating of “I keep dancing on my own” bypasses the world-ending collapse into self-pity of the original, painting the more optimistic picture of Robyn traipsing her stilettos past all the broken glass to the club’s exit and entering this newfound single phase of her life more at peace with the situation. Yeah, she’ll keep “dancing on her own”…and it’s okay.
“If you see me in the street/ Please walk on by/ This is no Hollywood ending” goes the hook to “No Hollywood Ending”, the new single from Sweden-based ’80′s pop lovers The Sonnets, leading one to believe that the accompanying record would be this raw slab of emo-angst.
Despite the bitter quote, however, “Ending” lands as a rather cheerful ear delight, using the fond memories of a young love’s blossoming (“A lonely blue-eyed boy from school/ Fell in love for the very first time/ We were dancing to northern soul…”) as inspiration for it’s buoyant Motown-lite stomp.
Sure, the relationship eventually grows sour (as most teenage romances do), but the band do a fantastic job of keeping alive the long-dead union’s early blissed-out joy on what’s sure to be a summer of ’10 playlist staple.
Robyn knows out to deliver a strong electro-pop ballad (As proof, just check previous entries/ massively acclaimed career highlights “Be Mine!” and “With Every Heartbeat”, or her latest excellent take on heartache-on-the-dancefloor emotional devastation in current single “Dancing On My Own”), so having the Swedish pop tart helm an 8-bit-stylized makeover of Alicia Keys’ ’09 tearjerker epic “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart” seems like it would be a near-magical aural experience.
Unfortunately, we’re left wishing that we would of had the chance to hear her version first, because despite Robyn pulling off a likable enough vocal performance (even her giggle-assisted flubs come off charming), it’s kinda difficult fully getting into this Live Lounge-birthed rendition when its chintzy, DIY-pop instrumentation can’t quite compete with the high-stakes ’80′s R&B dramatics masterfully brought forth in the original (arguably one of Keys’ Top 5 best ever creations).
Catch it, and her beautiful Live Lounge performance of “Dancing On My Own”, below.
Mysterious Swedish indie-pop entity jj aren’t above tapping into the urban music pool for a little inspiration (previous entries have borrowed hooks, verses and musical signatures from the catalogues of Akon, Lil’ Wayne and The Game), so it doesn’t really come as too much of a surprise that their newest cryptic creation, “CEO Birthday”, would lift melodic and lyrical content from Jeremih’s 2009 debut smash “Birthday Sex”.
The track is no less of a head-scratching marvel though, heightening the drowsy, lullabye undertones of “Birthday Sex” through singer Elin Kastlander’s gentle, ethereal coos and an extended downbeat instrumental section that brings to mind the chilled erotica of Art of Noise’s avant-garde bedroom staple “Moments In Love”.
On “None of Dem”, the latest enticing leakage teasing Robyn‘s highly-anticipated first-of-trilogy release Body Talk Pt. 1, the Swedish “Fembot” bristles with all kinds of irritation at the un-inspiring sounds and people flooding her small town: The boys can’t dance (therefore can’t get her sex), the girls lack style, and the beats…? By the icy tone she dishes out “None of these kicks go boom/ None of dem basslines fill the room”, let’s just say she’s left a bit underwhelmed.
If by “small town”, Robyn means Top 40 radio and the pathetically weak assortment of male and female “pop stars” it feels the need to push on us over and over all day, we’ll gladly back her up with an outcry of “Chuuuch!!!!”…that is when we take a break from trying to master our own otherworldly boogie to the “None of Dem”‘s eerie, backwards-flowing tribal stomp (y’know, the kind of left-field production a naughty-tongued Missy Elliott could freak with ease before she went on extended hibernation).
Hear the Röyksopp-assisted track over at Robyn’s website, or simply cop it, alongside Body Talk Pt. 1‘s other pre-release treats, “Dancehall Queen” (previously known as “No Hassle”) and “Fembot”, below.
Body Talk Pt. 1 is expected in June.
***As a super special bonus treat, raise your hands if you remember Robyn’s late 90′s success with Robyn Is Here singles like “Show Me Love” and “Do You Know (What It Takes)”? Alright, well how about when she was earning spins on BET (!!!!) with the “Urban Mix”/ QD3 Edit of that album’s third single, “Do You Really Want Me (Respect Me)”? Whether you do or not, enjoy this flashback to 1998 when Robyn was trying to compete with the Brandy’s and Monica’s of the world.
Say what you will about Grey’s Anatomy not really being the “must-see” event it once was (we wouldn’t necessarily argue with you), but you got to admit, they still know how to alert viewers to great under-the-radar pop finds. “Die Young”, from (previously MM-approved) Swedish indie duo The Sweet Serenades, is one of the prime-time soap’s latest compelling scene-soundtrackers.
Effectively pairing the rustic tenor of Serenades’ singer/ rhythmic guitarist Martin Nordvall with the sighing, featherweight coo of Club 8 vocalist Karolina Komstedt atop a melancholy recipe of wistful guitar, synth squiggles, cracking drums and rumbling bongos, midtempo ballad “Die Young” hones in on the all-too-familiar awkward scenario of a couple waking up from a one night stand with differing reactions.
“It’s a lie, we knew it all along”, emotes Nordvall on the hook, yet despite being fully aware of the “rules”, he’s still hesitant to budge from bed, wanting to milk every single second out of his post-lay state of bliss (“Oh I don’t wanna leave/ I just wanna lay here and watch you breathe”). Too bad Komstedt doesn’t share that same sense of euphoria, all she wants is for him to quickly depart before he falls for her any deeper: “I’m not looking for love/ I told you that I just wanna dance,” she pointedly reminds him, her words bathed in a weighted remorse.
Peep the MP3/ video below, followed by a dark n’ dubby “Die Young” remix put together by the Artymove gang.
Since catching our interest months ago with his highly addicting singles “Hurtful” and “Don’t Bring Flowers”, ginger-domed singer-songwriter Erik Hassle has become big stuff in his native Sweden, collecting not only a Top 10 album and two Top 40 singles, but the Swedish equivalent to a Best New Artist Grammy Award as well.
This year, the much-buzzed-about pop-soul-ster will finally steer his focus towards puncturing the US and UK markets with a re-packaging of his debut, now entitled Pieces; but for those not quite sold on why this guy is being touted amongst blog circles as one of music’s next breakthrough star, check the impressiveness that comes forth once Hassle’s silky blue-eyed-soul pipes are attached to pop faves both old and new:
“I Walk The Line” (Johnny Cash Cover)”
“Someday (The Strokes Cover)”
“Russian Roulette (Rihanna Cover)”
Good stuff, no?
Hassle’sPiecesdrops in the UK/ USA in March.Here’s the newest music clip take (his fourth!!) for future smash “Hurtful”:
Apparently Robyn thinks she’s Sade, what with the way she’s been cruelly holding out on releasing a new album (It may have only been five years since Robyn first hit stores, but that’s like, what, a thousand lifetimes in pop music time). Hopefully, though, the wait may be over sooner rather than later, as a possible early preview of the still-untitled LP has made it’s inevitable way to the Internets recently.
Previously sampled in it’s early stages via a brief YouTube clip back in December, the Diplo-helmed “No Hassle” casts Robyn as a patois-adopting “dancehall queen”, turning heads and garnering various shout-outs with the way she winds her body to the DJ’s hypnotic reggae-pop groove; all that she asks is that you don’t bother her while she’s lost in the rhythm’s “boom boom boom”.
Compared to Robyn’s previous catalogue highlights, “No Hassle” does seem a bit lacking in “wow” moments (Diplo’s production provides a mostly basic exercise of the dubstep/ dancehall sound), but that’s neither here nor there considering it carries a sturdy amount of pop hookiness and, hell, is A…NEW…ROBYN…JAM.
On Still Standing At Your Back Door, the debut full-length from nineteen-year-old Swedish twins Taxi Taxi!, sisters Miriam and Johanna Berhan go far out of their way to present themselves as old souls.
Yeah, their songwriting relies heavily on teenybopper-isms like puppy love and first heartaches, and you won’t ever mistake their squeaky harmonies as originating from some older and wiser female duo, but that’s the extent of any connection that could be made to America’s same-aged, Disney-backed tween-pop brigade. Instead of cheapened R&B-lite or pop-rock aural assaults, the Berhan sibs would rather surround their voices in beautifully earthen, acousti-folk settings. Their “girl-loves-boy” narratives? Over-dramatized poetics (most penned around the age of fifteen) about romantic addictions to boys with “troubled souls” (“Ripest Fruit”) and how snuggling close with the one you love brings about fantasies of marriage and kids (“More Childish Than In A Long Time”).
This strain for a beyond-our-years maturity in both musical and lyrical forms helps establish Still Standing as an ideal winter-time listen for listeners of all different ages, but interestingly enough, it’s true standout moment arises when Taxi Taxi! act more their age, as they do on the merry “Old Big Trees”, a summer camp sing-along-structured ditty featuring tender oom-pah strummings and the girls’ cutesy doe-eyed-meets-goth attempt at convincing some boy of the great couple they could make.
“Bachelor, oh bachelor,” they coo in girlish unison, “Maybe my skeleton would look quite beautiful beside yours”. All together now: Awww…
Ever since it’s premiere a couple months back, “Alejandro”, Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster-housed ode to letting go of old Latin lovers, has inspired plenty of giddy “This reminds me of…” chatter amongst her ever-growing fanbase, with many targeting those two aforementioned records.
But for anyone who kept their ears glued to Top 40 radio in the early ’90′s, “Alejandro” read the best as a tribute of sorts to ABBA via the slow, pseudo-reggae lope and weighty, Euro-dance-pop galumph relied on by that other mega-selling Swedish quartet Ace of Base, an idea succinctly proved through this inevitable mash-up of “Alejandro” and Ace of Base’s fifteen-year-old sound-alike “Don’t Turn Around” spliced together by award-winning Vegas DJ/ producer Morningstar.
Not only do both tracks own virtually the same backing track and melodic structure, allowing for near-seamless back-and-forth transitioning, but the concluding relationships depicted in both numbers nicely compliment eachother, the combined requests of “Don’t turn around/ Cause you’re gonna see my heart breaking” and “Don’t call my name/ Don’t call my name, Alejandro” helping add an entire new layer of brilliance to this appreciated novelty.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
For all it’s great pop value, Robyn‘s “Dancing On My Own” sure is depressing. After so many listens, you kinda want to reach in the speakers, work your way past the Moroder strobe synths-as-prison bars that are trapping the heartbroken and shattered pop tart on the same dancefloor where her ex is playing tonsil hockey with his new arm-candy, and give her a good shake: He’s moved on and so should you Robyn.
“It sounds like ABBA’s ‘Fernando’”.
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