Music Monday #30: Body Talk by Robyn

Okay, right off the bat this post is going to be confusing to some so in an attempt to make sense of it let's cover a few things first.

Robyn is a Swedish born pop singer who is very well known in the EDM scene but has also been mainstream with EDM inspired hits.  In 2010 she, technically, released 4 albums.  I say technically with hesitation because this is where it gets complicated.  The four albums are:

Body Talk Part 1
Body Talk Part 2
Body Talk Part 3
Body Talk

You would think that 1, 2, and 3, would simply be combined and reissued to make the 4th one in that list but no.  Each part has different tracks and the final edition takes tracks from each of the first 3.  If you want to own the lot, like I did, you need to buy all 4.  Now when I spoke about reissued albums before I mentioned that I generally don't have an issue with them unless there is content that can only be got by buying that reissue and in this case that's what you have to do. 

I love Robyn, I love her music and I loved this album, but for the purposes of this list I have to pick 1 release and I've chosen to go with the fourth, and in particular the standard edition of the album which is 15 tracks.

So, confusing explanations aside, the actual content of the fourth album itself I love from start to finish, every single track, and I can lsiten to the whole album without skipping.  That puts this album near the top of my music library right from the start.  There are however a few tracks on this album in particular that I love.  The first is 'Dancing On My Own' which is one of the tracks most people who know her will recognise as soon as it starts.  Dancing On My Own resonates with me because of the feeling of exclusion that it captures, to observe from a distance the people you want to be with doing their thing without you, leaving you to dance on your own.  Rather pointed, I know but the lyrics "I'm just gonna dance all night, I'm all messed up, I'm so outta line, Stilettos and broken bottles, I'm spinning around in circles" these just feed the feeling of letting go and getting lost in your own world trying to ignore what's right in front of you.

I can't mention this track without mentioning a cover that was released by Calum Scott, who in 2015 rose to fame when both he and his sister auditioned separately one after the other for Britain's Got Talent.  His sister was unsuccessful and having watched her get shot down by the judges he came out to perform a cover of Dancing On My Own.  Now the cynic in me has to point out that I rarely believe reality TV shows are 'real' I always assume that there's an element of scripting and production that plays a part in creating a narrative.  Whether that runs as deep as the reaction this moment had being intended or whether the producers thought scheduling them one after another in itself would create a story without expecting just what would emerge, I don't know.  Regardless, the performance Calum gave was emotional and led to a standing ovation and Simon Cowell using his golden buzzer to give Calum an automatic place in the final.  Calum went on to finish 6th in the competition but despite not winning he still got to release his cover of the song which is one of the few times where I think a cover is just as good as the original, possibly better but I hesitate to say that just a bit.

Back to Robyn, 'Love Kills', 'Call Your Girlfriend', and 'U Should Know Better' also feature on this edition of the album, all fitting the narrative of love sickness, and the pursuit of something more meaningful.  An honourable mention here goes to 'Cry When You Get Older' which featured on Body Talk Part 1, which also focuses on dealing with heartache and trying to move on with your life.  Another two honourable mentions go to tracks from her self titled album, they are 'Be Mine!' and 'With Every Heartbeat' which deal with this theme quite strongly, the latter of which became a massive dance hit when it was remixed by Voodoo & Serano and for a time became ubiquitous in the UK played in every club you went to, played on the radio. 

I've mentioned before that I generally prefer recording artists, that I listen to music to get an experience and to stimulate my senses, it is something that is generally something of an intimate experience and that's part of the reason why sharing music is a way for me to bond with people because the exchange of what you like and what you love is an exchange of emotion more than anything.  I also said that I generally don't care for concerts, and performances, and that I don't really do those because they don't appeal to me.  There are only a handful of established singers that I have seen live and a fair few indie singers and bands that never made it but in their case I think they were performing artists that did not translate into recording.  There are only a few singers I would not only want to see live but would fully expect to have the same experience seeing them perform as I have when I listen to them. 

In 2007 I got to see Robyn perform live with Röyksopp in London, an experience that I still look back on with so many memories attached to it, Robyn delivered a stellar performance that lived up to my expectations.  The performance was to a small audience and it felt intimate, I was treated to the experience by someone who knew how much I loved Robyn and knew I wouldn't be disappointed by her performance.  I'm grateful for having that opportunity and being so close to her on the night, I know that with most concerts you're never that close to the performance.  This is the only Robyn album that will feature on this list, if for no other reason than the fact that I've technically covered 5 albums with the honourable mentions included so she would dominate this list if I had included them all separately.