Robyn

I'm not sure why so many people seem to dismiss Robyn due to her lack of sales. The public isn't infalliable, and there's no reason why her music can't stand up on its own. Demanding that all "pop" must sit atop the charts is as limiting as demanding that all rock bands give great live performances and all dance producers make club hits - these things are obviously all signposts of likely quality but they're not the only barometers, and while I enjoy chart success as I enjoy live performances and club hits I don't see why the absence of any of these things should necessarily be a stick to beat artists with.

I agree that it's annoying when people get a fixated idea of what "pop" is all or should be and then complain endlessly when that idea deviates from what is actually in the charts, but let's not jump the gun. Robyn does quite a variety of different things, some of which sound similar to stuff that has been in the charts recently, and some of which doesn't. I hardly think she's holding out some outmoded, idealised "golden age" notion of pop for musical conservatives to embrace at the expense of current pop music (Saint Etienne or Annie or Sally Shapiro, all of whom I love, and all of whom have a much clearer indie-affiliation, fit this brief much more obviously).

It's as if, since there is no area of pop music which is not currently copping a lot of retro moves, popular success becomes the only possible tool for determining the difference between residual and dominant/emergent pop (sonics alone can no longer help us as they did half a decade ago). But when I think of my favourite pop songs this year (including "Me & U", "Irreplaceable", "Dream On", "Silent Shout", "Promise", "Ghetto Story", "With Every Heartbeat", "Get Together", "Temperature", "Buttons" and so on) I see no clear standout direction for the "sound of now/tomorrow" and rather an every-which-way spillover of ideas grounded in lots of different sonic approaches that have been popular over the last five years. It should be noted that I may be wrong, but for myself, I can't rely on such clear dichotomies to explain my current appreciation of pop music.

was this released as a single?

i concur with dom, who'd dismiss robyn for her lack of sales when there're so many other reasons to dismiss her, like her crap songs?

Lex "Give It Up To Me" is so boring! It's the archetypal last third of the dancehall album pop duet (as opposed to the great first third of the dancehall album pop duet!).

How good is Alicia Keys on the "Ghetto Story" remix though?

(sorry, wandering off topic)

And yes, it is perfect. Whatever perfect is.

yeah i know but keyshia cole's verse pwns all. so light and offhand and perfect! all of SP's duets are underrated though, everyone seemed to love 'baby boy' at the time but have now forgotten how supremely poised it is. incidentally tim i think you've totally underrated b-day, we should return to this elsewhere though as beyoncé is too good to be talked about on a robyn thread.

How good is Alicia Keys on the "Ghetto Story" remix though?

YES. i love the whole cham album too.

what are those robyn songs like? what i mean is, are they cutesy and twee and fucking annoying with lame beats and no basslines, or are they dreadful sub-imbruglia acoustic balladzzzz, or is it possible that robyn has actually done another song as awesome as 'be mine'?

"With Every Heartbeat" is a chilly electro-ballad on which Robyn sounds scarily like Kate Bush - and I mean scarily. Musically it's in Anneli Drecker territory, lachrymose string sections and squeaky clean zoloft synthesiser arpeggios, it sounds large and emotional more than tuneful.

As per the above I generally like Robyn at her most serious (yes, like "Be Mine").

As someone who believes Who's That Girl is Robyn's masterpiece, this makes me very happy.