Robyn: Live at the Roundhouse

All due apologies for the lack of "witty" title.

Last night, we traipsed down from Oxford to the Roundhouse in Camden to see perennial Pop Web favourite Robyn perform live. Let it be known from the outset that whilst we will certainly try to deliver the jounralistic objectivity loyal readers have come to occasionally see expect from this reputable blog, we were so bloody excited about the whole thing that she could have stepped on stage and read the local Chinese takeaway menu and we'd have loved it. Such excitement, we hope, will also explain the fact that we forgot to bring a camera and thus have no photos of the event which was (in hindsight) a bit of an error.

Let's get the tedious negatives out of the way first. The set was fairly short. The whole concert lasted just less than an hour, and appeared to be suffering from some delays in the earlygoing. The reasons for this became clear when Robyn eventually took to the stage and addressed the crowd. Robyn has been suffering from a throat infection, which in fact has caused her to cancel tonight's gig in Bristol. Given these caveats, what Robyn actually delivered in the hour she was on stage was nothing short of amazing.

From beginning to end there was no wasted motion, and track after track was delivered with staggering energy. There wasn't a single point that we could discern that the crowd's energy level dropped, which is absolutely a testament to Robyn's ability to engage an audience. For someone who is clearly a bit under the weather (to say the least) the Swedish dynamo was constantly leaping around the stage, dancing every bit as frenetically as she does in the video for Dancing On My Own. It was certainly an 'A' for effort from us.

The setlist delivered hit after hit, but nostalgia was noticeably lacking. Starting things off with Time Machine was an inspired choice as it got the by-now restless crowd firmly on side with one of Body Talk's more undersung anthems. Vocally, this was a polished performance (again, amazing given her current bout of illness), but frankly, the singing along of the crowd on Dancing On My Own (be warned, that video contains liberal use of strobe lighting) and Cobrastyle meant that Robyn could have sang every single note off key and it wouldn't have mattered. Dancing On My Own was given a very early airing, which initially had us worried that after her biggest recent hit, the energy levels would drop. Those fears were utterly unfounded, as We Dance To The Beat/Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do built on "Dancing's" momentum and actually made us appreciate two of the more experimental (read, skippable) tracks on Body Talk. We could enthuse at length about the many other phenomenal performances Robyn delivered, including Love Kills, and Stars 4-Ever which were two of the more impressive sleeper hits of the night. Instead, what we'd like to focus on are the three tracks which, to be quite honest, if we died tonight we'd be glad we lived to hear live.

Firstly, Indestructible. (Apologies for the slightly fluctuating sound quality on this video)

Particular highlights here included a man standing behind us bellowing this song with such gusto that it almost made us want to turn around, hug him, and tell him that everything was going to be all right. Also, the mini-breakdown after the "four to the floor" bit where everyone did the right thing and clapped along. Well done Camden.

Secondly, The Girl and the Robot

Of all of the songs in the Robyn corpus, this is the one that can, at any given moment, dissolve us into floods of tears and force us to atonally warble along. Seeing it live magnified that feeling tenfold. Absolutely beautiful performance of a beautiful song.

And finally, With Every Heartbeat. With one performance, Robyn absolutely cemented her reputation as the queen of disco-fuelled heartbreak (yes, that well known monarchy). The noise from the crowd when those first beats kicked in was frankly astonishing, and the feverish refrain of "And. It. Hurts. With. Every. Heartbeat" as the concert drew to a close was (not to be too gushy about this) inspiring. An amazing conclusion to a phenomenal concert which sent the room's two key demographics (i.e. Scandinavians and gays, or, as we loudly termed them on the tube going home, "Scandigayvians"...) hope both happy and heartbroken.

With all that said, there were some unfortunate omissions from the evening. Hang With Me was conspicuous by its absence as was None of Dem similarly, Cobrastyle and With Every Heartbeat Aside, there was no room for going over old glory in this concert. This was all about Body Talk, and as such Be Mine! and Who's That Girl? were somewhat missed, to say nothing of Show Me Love or Keep This Fire Burning. This was not a greatest hits concert, but it was also far from self-indulgent. Robyn had the crowd singing along to every single word, and she showcased Body Talk beautifully, remaining accessible for new fans whilst indulging the rabid fanbase she had attracted to the show. 

All it remains is for us to do is to count down the seconds until Robyn is back in the UK, in rude health. Because, frankly, if we can be left this buzzing with excitement 24 hours after a concert in which she wasn't at 100%, we can't wait to see what she'd deliver when she's back on top form.

How's it hangin'?

This is the new single from Robyn, designed to give momentum for the release of her forthcoming album Body Talk Pt. 2 (or as I like to call it, Body Talk 2: The Petite Swedish Popstar With The Nice Voice Who Sh*gged Me) (editors note: She didn't. Obviously. It's an Austin Powers reference). Hang With Me appeared in acoustic form at the arse end of Body Talk Pt. 1, but this is the single version which is due for release. Please ignore Annie Mac talking all over the intro.



It's important to note the following:

1. Robyn is always amazing, and belongs to the exclusive "artists that thepopweb would happily hear sing the phonebook" club.
2. The eventual video probably won't have anything as brilliant as the dance moves from Dancing On My Own but, frankly, we can't see how anything will ever top that.
3. As much as Robyn is always amazing. This isn't quite as good as aforementioned Dancing On My Own.

We like the delicate yet idiosyncratic electronic backing track and the operator of the drum machine does a fine job in creating the all-important clap-along moments. Lyrically, the whole thing hangs together very well. The admonition "Just don't fall, recklessly, headlessly in love with me" is bloody brilliant and demonstrates in a flash why Robyn is such an important and eloquent songwriter. It hasn't got that iconic sad disco sound of Dancing or With Every Heartbeat but Robyn's voice, which just drips with sadness and emotion, creates the effect all by itself.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what doesn't quite click for us with this song. All of the elements are there. We love the lyrics. We love the backing track, we love that whooshing effect when it breaks into the chorus. The song misses a strong middle-8 and could do with a crescendo-creating bridge into the chorus but that's a minor niggle. We suppose it's a classic case of loving all the constitutent parts and being a little dissatisfied when the whole just ends up being the sum of its parts. Pop is like that sometimes.

We would like to underscore all of this with the following conclusion, however. This isn't our favourite Robyn song: it's still one of the strongest pop singles to be released over the past six months. She's that good.

Batman and Robyn

It's taken us around two weeks to recover from that Diana Vickers review. But thankfully we've been jerked back into reality, and it's all thanks to not having any more bloody exams to do the travesty that is the chart position of Robyn's new single this Sunday. Dancing On My Own. Here's the video; it's got a very half-finished feel to it. Almost as if they stopped building the set half-way through but Robyn was just like "screw it, the quality of my emoting is such that no one will really notice anyway."



The song itself is absolutely spectacular, and taps in perfectly to this "sad disco" malarkey (c.f. Scissor Sisters Fire With Fire; Lady Gaga Alejandro) which really is invigorating pop music this Summer. And, where, I hear you cry is this masterpiece of modern pop music and (if we're being honest) the natural lyrical progression from The Smiths' How Soon Is Now? going to chart if the Friday midweeks are to be believed?

Number 7.

:'(

But it's OK, because thankfully James Corden and Dizzy Rascal are here to massacre Tears For Fears in the name of cheering on the English Football team.

Thank God, we were worried that pop music had just curled into a corner and died for a second.

As we've said before, if All The Lovers can't make number 1 this Summer, then everyone might as well pack up and go home.