With a surfeit of synth-toting popgirls clogging up the charts, Robyn re-enters the fray in a paradoxical position, at once a wise elder and a “me too” straggler. After huge success in the face of adversity with her last, self-titled, album (years in the making, rejected by her original record company at the time), Body Talk Pt 1 feels like rather a low-key release. In an age where not having a hit can scupper an album, it’s just as well that Robyn has gone down the independent route. This mini-album does seem destined to exist outside of chart-hit land – clocking in at a skimpy thirty minutes, it’s measly compared to recent releases from Beyonce and Lady Gaga. These days one of Robyn’s Scandinavian electro-pop contemporaries, Lindstrom, knocks out tracks that are just getting into their stride around the half hour mark. Two further Body Talk releases are promised later this year and to be fair the first installment is, like its creator, compact but charming and witty and seductive in all the right ways. What is striking at first about Body Talk Pt 1 is its flatness. The record rarely strays away from the metronomic groove, the minimalist icy cold sound exemplified by single Dancing On My Own. An exception to the rule is lovely folky piece Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa, but the general mood of the album is successful; Fembot is hugely catchy and pleasantly echoes Robyn’s collaboration with Royksopp last year, The Girl And The Robot (Royksopp appear here adding their quirky production clout to None Of Dem). Robyn, a rather unheralded risk-taker in many respects, tries her hand at reggae at one point (No, wait! Come back!) but the track in question, Dancehall Queen, is by no means a disaster. It far surpasses that previous Nordic attempt at reggae, Laid Back’s ropey 1983 hit Sunshine Reggae. What we’re dealing with here then, is a fairly straightforward question of value for money, and although a mini-album will always feel insubstantial, once Body Talk’s three parts are strung together, on this form it will be a top-notch body of work. Now that Robyn is making music on her own terms we don’t have to worry about those promised records failing to surface. Whatever happens in the future, Body Talk Part 1 is well worth a punt.
See also: Lindstrom – Where You Go I Go Too [Smalltown Supersound], Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster [Interscope], Royksopp – Junior [Astralwerks]
Words: Ciaran Gaynor
