Rockyn Robyn, Tweet Tweet Kaboom!!!

In a world full of music royalty titles being flung around like a middle school lunch fight, I've decided to throw my metaphoric tater-tot into the air and declare that if pop has a princess, Robyn is the (not necessarily ugly) wicked step-sister who happens to make better music. Musically and lyrically, she's the best parts of Daria and Janeane Garafalo's wit, Lisa Loeb's honesty, and Peaches or Lady Sovereign's in-yo-facedness. "Why has this Swedish dish not become a gigantic pop sensation in America, then?" you ask. Uh, because she did almost ten years ago. She's been in the game a long time, so it makes sense why she decided to change it.

Robyn, Robyn's recent obviously self-titled US release, actually came out a while ago in other countries. I'll save you the history lesson and just allow you to wiki its journey to US distribution, so that I can just get right down to the music. The album is atomic. It's pop done right. Robyn acknowledges the pop elements, which is refreshing in a world full of music snobbery. The tracks are first and foremost melody-driven. The narrative and affect of the lyrical content is intrinsic in the notes of the melody; so when she sings, which she does with sassy but heartfelt candor, the rest of the song can't help but be just as tenacious.

She hits hard in "Cobrastyle" and "Konichiwa Bitches." She's come a long way since her Max Martin collaboration days with songs like "Show Me Love," which actually peaked at #7 in US charts. In songs like "Who's That Girl" she really starts to real you in with her endearing insistence. The tracks from their first European incarnation have morphed slightly to make the album a bit more congruent. Otherwise, songs like the re-worked "Bum Like you" (although I prefer the original version) would seem a bit non sequitur. Speaking of which, the sounds in "Bum Like You" and "Be Mine!" are the heart of the album, and "With Every Heartbeat" the heart of the heart. It takes a certain type of artist/singer/performer to cut with one's voice through the dazzling fizz of pop-electronica (the drum-kits, the synth-pads, distorted alien sounds with cosmic overtones, et cetera). Not many people can. Robyn has placed herself in a very small club of musicians. I'm sure Bjork has made her a casserole.

The best part of the US version of Robyn is the addition of the track "Dream On." She is unashamed to be pop and she knows it was the seeds to her growth into a mature dance-floor annihilator. She even tends to close her concerts with an encore of a stripped-down "Show Me Love." So come on, music snobs, embrace your inner-pop princess. Then tell her to get out the fucking way, because Robyn is coming over and she's going to smash my speakers into atomic bits!