Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 2 Review

Posted by Adam Hill on 09.07.2010

Standing on the brink of true brilliance, Robyn’s second of three albums this year is a master class in emotional electro-pop.




1) In My Eyes
2) Include Me Out
3) Hang With Me
4) Love Kills
5) We Dance to the Beat
6) Criminal Intent
7) U Should Know Better (featuring Snoop Dogg)
8) Indestructible (acoustic version)



”Hang With Me”


You could be forgiven for thinking that releasing 3 albums in the space of half a year would result in maybe a couple of great tracks, a handful of good ones and a reasonable proportion of filler. Yet, three short months after dropping the first of her planned mini-album trilogy, the storming Body Talk Pt. 1, …Pt. 2 is upon us and there is absolutely no let up in Robyn’s quality control.

Less experimental than its predecessor, less obsessed with heartbreak and, to be fair, less playful, Body Talk Pt. 2, like the Daft Punk song says, is Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger. Whereas …Pt. 1 played with different musical styles across its 30 minutes, …Pt. 2 devotes almost all of its eight tracks to the club. This is an album crammed with vicious electro-pop of the highest order. Centerpiece is the now discofied “Hang With Me” which had previously appeared acoustically on …Pt. 1. Still full of soul and emotion, it’s now backed with a killer electro beat that commands movement from your body. If you listen to this in a public place, be prepared for people to stare at you. Your head and feet will move rhythmically regardless of you wanting them to or not.

“Hang With Me” may well be the centerpiece but it is the insanely catchy, so-ridiculous-it-works, collaboration with Snoop Dogg, “U Should Know Better”, that is the initial and unexpected highpoint. Set over a brutally fast electro-pop track, that could quite easily soundtrack a high octane video game, Snoop (sounding more like his Doggystyle self than for many a year) and Robyn swear their way through a list of people who “know better than to fuck with (them)”. If “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do” on …Pt. 1 was like spitting on the floor in front of a policeman, then “U Should Know Better” is the look, the hard stare, given after the spit hits the ground, that simply says ‘do something’. The FBI, the CIA, the French, the Russians, the entire music industry, the Vatican and the mother-fucking Prince of Darkness himself, all of them know better than to fuck with Robyn and Snoop. Thing is, you don’t doubt it either.

Before we reach “U Should Know Better” though we are treated to some sublime dance-pop with “In My Eyes”, “Include Me Out” and “Love Kills” but it is the hauntingly beautiful “Indestructible (acoustic version)” that gives cause for most excitement and an insight into the purpose of this entire project. While Robyn has professed that the songs chosen are simply the ones that are ready at the time of release it is clear that there is a touching core running through the very heart of each mini-album and that there is more method than madness at work in this rather avant-garde approach. If she follows the form shown in …Pt. 1 and …Pt. 2, namely that the acoustic track from the former (“Hang With Me”) is electroed up for the latter, then in a few more months “Indestructible” could well turn out to the best pop track of the year. But more than that, a raw emotional evolution will have been demonstrated in the narrative that runs through each release. With heartache in “Dancing On My Own”, moving on yet still delicate and vulnerable in “Hang With Me” we now have the willingness, and desire to throw oneself headfirst, “like I’ve never been hurt before”, into love once more. Set over a lively yet affecting string arrangement, Robyn has conjured up a deeply moving close to Body Talk Pt. 2 that creates genuine anticipation and enthusiasm for what Pt. 3 might bring. If she pulls it off, this may well end up being one of the greatest achievements in pop for the last 20 years.

The 411: As with …Pt.1, Body Talk Pt. 2 is stuffed full with attitude, memorable choruses and insatiable hooks. On its own it would be classed as a great album, but that it follows an equally high quality release just months before, and that it promises so much for the final part of the trilogy later this year just makes Robyn’s second album of 2010 all the more incredible. This unique, ambitious, approach to releasing her music is going along way to establishing Robyn as the preeminent force in electro-pop and, coupled with the sheer quality of the tracks on offer, helps make this an essential purchase for any fan of the genre.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]