Swellsville : "Queen of the Sad Bangers" for a Happy Pride Weekend

Wikipedia says Robyn's "triumph in rejection" has made her a LGBTQ icon. When I saw her at Neumos, 2010-ish, around the Body Talk record, a small club, semi-packed (hundreds, not thousands) she was like a soulful aerobics instructor, a bohemian cheerleader, baring her heartbreak with a steely defiant grace. Tender hearted, a winning sparkplug of energy; Robyn makes Pride-friendly latter day disco; work it out dance pop broken up with emotionally wrenching electro pop tearjerkers. She's emotionally raw and electric; a platinum livewire and former theater kid. TGIDF.

Her 2005 self-titled album, her fourth album, her first produced independently, Konichiwa Records, is one of my favorite albums of the 21st century. Admittedly, I've heard paltry amateur numbers of albums in this century at best but Robyn's independent album debut is special.

She put out a couple of tight R&B singles in the mid-'90s. Hearing them on the radio I thought she was Janet Jackson or somebody like that. She kind of was but actually from Sweden; sort of Prince and Madonna as a tough cookie hiphop b-girl from Europe. An original but big sweetheart next door vibe from the start.

But I've never entirely warmed to any of her other albums; they always sound like a single or two and filler; decent electro pop filler but filler. But Robyn, 2005, is all killer no filler; almost a concept album the pastiche of R&B and Hiphop studio pop, club beats, electronics, strings, sweet melodies, her gorgeously sensitive vocals tightly woven into a sonic portrait of, well, Robyn. Every song seductive feel good dance pop, every song under the feel good surface heart wrenchingly sad and sweet.

Anyway, brilliant, crafty, accomplished model of crossover global dance pop from 2005. Should not be missed; sounds almost utopian in 2025. Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Perfume Genius call her out as a big inspiration. Happy Pride Weekend.

Robyn (Konichiwa Records/2005) A++

Standout tracks--

"Be Mine"