Robyn Completes Her Body Talk Trilogy

Robyn set out to release three albums in one year, and on November 22nd, she will have achieved her goal. Her third Body Talk album, simply called "Body Talk" (no Part 3 or anything) will contain five songs from Part 1, five songs from Part 2, and five brand new songs (including the uptempo version of "Indestructible," which appeared in acoustic form on Part 2).

Although the album doesn't drop for another 8 days, the new songs leaked and I got a hold of them. I decided to post them here so you can listen for yourselves, and write a short review of each of them. Before beginning, I want to post something Robyn said recently in an interview with Vita.mn, a Minneapolis website:

"There are five new songs [on "Body Talk"], and they're all pretty hardcore pop songs. The song structure is very traditional pop. I felt like we did the "Fembot" thing and we danced the beat in "Don't Tell Me What to Do," so Klaus [Åhlund, her main producer] and me just wanted to write good, traditional songs, and I feel like that's what we did. There are five beautiful pop songs. [I'm] totally proud of [my late-'90s hits]. And that's why I worked with Max Martin again on this new album. [Martin produced her early singles, as well as hits by Spears and the Backstreet Boys.]...It would have been really easy for me to take the easy route and make the album really tricky and more obscure, but I wanted to do like the big pop finale and show people that I'm not afraid of that. Maybe I'm intellectualizing it a little bit too much, but for me it's like taking that world back and coming back full-circle to where I started it.
This quotation is very important because I definitely needed to have it in the back of my mind when hearing the new songs...and you should too. You can find the 4 songs and my short reviews of each after the jump. I didn't post "Indestructible" because I posted it in a previous entry. Click HERE to go to that entry. Enjoy!



Time Machine:



This is the song that Robyn worked with Max Martin on, and it's probably the strongest of these four songs. It's a classic pop song with a catchy melody that you'll be happy to have stuck in your head. The lyrics are both meaningful (who hasn't said something they wish they could go back in time and take back?) and playful ("All I want is a DeLorean/If I could go just like that/I'll be taking it back, taking it back"). This is definitely Robyn 2010 meets Robyn 1997. It's great to see Robyn re-embracing her roots, yet still moving forward and adding a bit more sophistication.
Free Bitch Grade: A-

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Call Your Girlfriend:



This is another classic-sounding pop song with a twist. The sound of the song is instant ear candy, yet the lyrics are a bit disturbing. Robyn tells a guy she's with to call his girlfriend and tell her that he met somebody new who he has more of a connection with (and that somebody is Robyn, obviously). Not many pop stars sing about this kind of subject, especially adding extra depth and complexity to the situation, with lyrics such as, "Tell her not to get upset, second-guessing everything you said and done/And then when she gets upset tell her how you never mean to hurt no one." Robyn, the other woman, does not hate the girlfriend but empathizes with her and gives the man sound advice straight from the heart. In "Dancing On My Own," Robyn is the one with the broken heart, watching the man she loves be with another woman. In this song, Robyn is the other woman. While "Call Your Girlfriend" is a great song, I can relate to the vulnerable, heartbroken Robyn just a little bit more. Her lyrics are a lot more effective when she is the one dancing on her own, than when she's the one causing another poor girl to do so.
Free Bitch Grade: B+

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Get Myself Together:



This is my least favorite of the four new songs. It's not a great song, and it's not a bad one either. In fact, it's such an average pop song that I don't even have much to say about it. The lyrics are definitely relatable; Robyn sings about how difficult it is to get herself together again after being badly hurt. For some reason though, despite being through the same situation many times, I feel like I haven't been able to connect to the song as well as I have to some of her other ones. Overall, it's not unlistenable by any means, but it definitely isn't one of Robyn's best.
Free Bitch Grade: B

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Stars 4-Ever:



Out of these 4 songs, this is the closest to a classic love song. The lyrics, the music, and Robyn's voice are all very sweet and the song is, all-in-all, a pleasure to listen to. With songs like "Dancing On My Own" on the album, this song shows Robyn versatility as a song writer: she can write about love just as genuinely as she can write about heartbreak.
Free Bitch Grade: B+