The Weekly Album #3: Robyn ‘Body Talk’
My partner and I like to stream one full album a week, to keep our musical brains surprised. [Jan 23rd, 2023]
My pick was ‘Body Talk’ by Robyn, a critical darling of 2010 that audiences never quite vibed with and an album I’ve been meaning to get for years; now that I have, I almost wish I hadn’t, because I don’t understand the good reviews — contemporary or retrospective — at all. Even for an album at the tail end of the pre-streaming music industry, ‘Body Talk’ is too long — too many songs, too many minutes for each song — except in the respect where it really matters, which is to say that those songs are often too short on ideas and stretch them cruelly thin. There’s a proto-Kim Petras feel to the semi-industrial beats and alien yelping, but lacking Petras’ icy glare or total abandon. I can’t deny the joyful power of ‘Dancing On My Own’, which is a stone cold classic, but this is robotic music in the unfriendly, hostile sense (and the cod-reggae of ‘Dancehall Queen’ is simply embarrassing).
BEST: ‘Dancing On My Own’, ‘Hang With Me’
WORST: ‘Love Kills’, ‘Dancehall Queen’
Up next is ‘Westgate Under Fire’ by Dub War…
