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CULTURE BOX WORLDWIDE SHOWCASE - SWEDEN


Robyn's new album gets 5 stars in the Independent On Sunday today!!!

Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches

also here's the Guardians review:

Robyn, Robyn (Konichiwa)
Friday March 30, 2007
reviewed by John Burgess in The Guardian

4 Stars out of 5

Robyn is a former pop puppet (in 1995, she had an international hit aged 14 with Show Me Love) who has cut her strings. Desiring creative freedom, she bought herself out of a major label to set up her own imprint. But far from being deliberately artful or wayward, Robyn remains defiantly pop: the chorus of Cobrastyle even goes "bum, diddy, bum de dang de dang diddy diddy"; and Be Mine! recalls Madonna in her Like a Prayer prime. She deals with her suffocating contractual problems on the synthetic Who's That Girl, penned with fellow Swedes the Knife, and on Handle Me she emits a put-down unlikely to ever come from the mouth of a JoJo clone: "You're a selfish, narcissistic, psycho freaking boot-licking slimy creep." All enough to make you want to holler: go, girl!

some videos by the knife:

some videos by Teddybears

femalefirst say:

 

Robyn Single Konichiwa Bitches

28th March 2007 11:54:38

 

She is Robyn. The most killingest pop star on the planet. A pint-sized atom bomb dosed to the t*ts on electric and dispensing wisdom in three-minute modernist pop bulletins on the post-adolescent condition.

 

‘Robyn’ is also a collection of ultra-concise pop moments – that rarest of things, a classic pop album. It’s a sad-eyed, super-strong battery of nuclear-powered pop. It’s the best weapon she’s got.

 

Discovered at the age of 13, Robyn was immediately signed to BMG who put out her debut album, a collection of R&B-influenced pop on which she collaborated with future Britney-hitwrangler Max Martin, in 1995. The release of her sweet, soulful single ‘Show Me Love’ cemented Robyn as an international pop star and saw her break into the UK top 10 and sell millions of albums across the world.

 

Then, disillusioned by the lack of artistic control offered by her label, Robyn looked to how her fellow Swedes and comrades Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer aka The Knife, self-financed and released their work. In a completely unprecedented move for a mainstream pop artist, she bought herself off her label.

 

Six months later, Robyn was CEO and founder of Konichiwa Records. She also had a new sidekick. Klas Åhlund is the main man behind Teddybears STHLM, Stockholm’s amazing bricolage pop group who have variously been fronted by Annie and Neneh Cherry, Iggy Pop and Mad Cobra.

 

The first thing Klas brought to the Konichiwa table was the basic frame for a song depicting intense unrequited love. ‘Be Mine!’ is just beautiful. Every word that Robyn sings – ‘It’s a good thing tears never show in the pouring rain/As if a good thing ever can make up for all the pain’ - sounds like it’s being crumpled up and clutched to her chest.

 

The result of her newly struck friendship with The Knife was ‘Who’s That Girl’ – unquestionably one of the best pop singles of the past five years. Strapping herself into the very heart of The Knife’s towering, architectural synthpop – a shifting, interlocking grid of colour and beats, hard enough to break your fists on – Robyn emptied all of her frustration, insecurity and desperation. The lyrics, specifically, railed against her contractual purgatory, but ‘Who’s That Girl’s loaded despair resonates powerfully with anyone – any girl­­ – left beaten by the capriciousness of gender or image politics.

 

Robyn may now be the kickingest label CEO around, but she was out on a limb here. A lifetime’s earnings had been ploughed into a dream. The conflict of liberation and anxiety about the project, as well as galvanizing Robyn, seemed to polarise her character. One half of ‘Robyn’ was all hip-thrusting-f***-you-cool, but in the gentle suite of ballads that wind everything down there is a smaller, sadder Robyn.

 

“I’m a Gemini maybe that’s what it is!†she exclaims. “Because I am this very outgoing person people think that I’m always sure what I’m gonna do, which I’m not! I always question myself! The perfect example is ‘Konichiwa Bitches’. “That song was made because I was so scared! I was like ARGH what am I DOING? I had to like bang my chest and go RAR! I’m the $h!t! I’m the best girl in the world!â€

 

‘Konichiwa Bitches’ is Robyn’s signature tune. Over pixellated hip-pop beats, Robyn unloads like a manga Missy Elliott. Its biggest inspiration was Bugs Bunny, and the way he’d totally front on Yosemite Sam with big-ass ACME boxing gloves.

 

The UK release of ‘Robyn’ also features re-recorded, jumped up versions of ‘Bum Like You’ and ‘Robotboy’. The boisterous ‘Cobrastyle’ (which was previously released on last years ‘Rakamonie EP’) and the heart achingly beautiful ‘With Every Heart Beat’ has also been added.

 

‘Robyn’, in some ways, is emblematic of a move towards a more autonomous pop industry, with artists working creatively in egalitarian partnerships rather than at the behest of a major corporation.

 

“I think it’s the future,†Robyn enthuses. “I don’t think you’re gonna have big record companies in five years. Even three. They have not adapted to this new world where people download music or don’t buy stuff that they don’t like. “I think record companies felt like they were immortal. The industry was like WAAAGH,†Robyn beats her tiny chest. “Y’know, we’re The $h!t. We can do whatever we want. We have all this money, and you just have to do whatever we tell you to do and you can’t own it.â€

 

Really though, what ‘Robyn’ represents is the story of one ass-kicking little blonde woman who blasted through the industry bull$h!t and made a startling, profound, honest pop music all of her own.

 

It is music with one message. Be your own star.

 

WHAT THE PRESS HAVE SAID….

 

“The very best in cartoon J-pop, drrrrty-girl hip hop and Prince covers, check her chuckin-out-time pub piano version of Jack U Off.†UNCUT

 

“Genius Swedish pop.†NME

 

“Easy to imagine as a No 1. A wonderful addition to the genre of emotive, slightly sinister electro pop. Madonna eat your heart out.†SUNDAY TIMES

 

"What you would hope a Britney / Daft Punk collaboration would sound like." POPJUSTICE

Well, not all reviews are good ;)

 

Culturedeluxe Review - 4/10

 

http://www.culturedeluxe.com/news_item.asp?id=1425

 

It's been nearly 10 years since we heard from Robyn in the UK. Back in 1998 she hit the Top 10 with 'Show Me Love', a flimsy pop tune, indicative of the time, that gave her the collective kudos of Roxette. These days she's working with a far better crowd including fellow Swedes The Knife and Teddybears STHLM (whose 'Cobrastyle' she covers here) and the result is lyrics as dirty as the electro-bass that underpins this album.

 

There is, however, still far too much 'c**p pop' on this collection for it to be picked up by the people it's being marketed at.

'Handle Me', is a confused mess half way between Natalie Imbruglia and Timbaland, it's simply trying to please too many people at once. 'Be Mine!' is similarly horrible, like an 8-bit Kelly Clarkson.

 

'With Every Heartbeat', a cosmic hi-NRG number with violins (yes!) fares far, far better. As does former Swedish single 'Who's That Girl?' - the sound of Ace of Base and Cyndi Lauper getting nutted in a Berlin nightclub. A trio of R'n'B ballads at the end can be skipped completely.

 

While this is easily the most enjoyable Robyn record I've heard, there's really no more than a mini-LP's worth of good material on here. She comes across slightly confused on this album, never sure which audience she has made this for and, by working with many different producers, the album lacks cohesion.

I ADORE Robyn. She is as far as my natural barrier of pure pop goes. The new album is just excellent too [though it ISN'T all that new].

 

Its a shame her people BALLSED up her UK release.