web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Robyn

  • The Way I See It: Mike’s Favorite Albums of 2008 Part II

    No point in any long, drawn-out intros right? I posted #s 25-13 yesterday. Here’s my Top 12 for the year.

    12. Keane “Perfect Symmetry”

    Yep, Keane made a better album than Coldplay. Even if you pit the two bands’ signature piano ballads against one another, Keane wins based on Tom Chaplin’s near-operatic voice. However, for album #3, Keane flipped the script, adding a guitarist on some tracks and going for an Eighties’ dance-pop sound with songs like the excellent Spiralling. I’m amazed that this album didn’t do better than it did, this might be the year’s most underrated album.

    The Lovers Are Losing – Keane

    11. Raphael Saadiq “The Way I See It”

    It took me a long time to get into this album, because the former Tony Toni Tone’s Motown homage seemed like it was made with the specific intention to appeal to people like me who have major issues with current R&B music. However, unnecessary Jay-Z remix aside, The Way I See It won me over with grooves that recall the best of the Temptations, Tops and Miracles, not to mention the Chi-Lites and Delfonics. Seeing Saadiq perform these songs live a month or so ago only reinforced how good this album is.

    10. Kings of Leon “Only By the Night”

    Kings of Leon make their second straight appearance on one of my year end charts by expanding on the formula that’s brought them success so far. Caleb Followill still has that weird, haunting quality to his voice that makes everything he sings sound kind of spooky, but the rest of the band has stepped up their game to the point where they’re making real rock anthems. Sex on Fire was a winning single whose slightly dirty vibe justified its’ title.

    9. Gnarls Barkley “The Odd Couple”

    Best rapper/singer currently working? Cee-Lo Green. Although the rotund half of Gnarls Barkley dropped emceeing from his repertoire with this album, it wasn’t missed-Cee-Lo remains one of the most expressive singers in any genre. Oddball songs like Blind Mary and the haunting Who’s Gonna Save My Soul blended perfectly with dancefloor rave-ups like Run to successfully beat back the sophomore jinx. If I had trophies to give out, Danger Mouse would get one for best producer of 2008.

    8. Girl Talk “Feed the Animals”

    Remember back in the day when sampling was more creative than just dropping vocals over the instrumental to a popular song? Girl Talk certainly does, and this enjoyable collection of mashups-think Three 6 Mafia rapping over Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend or BLACKstreet’s No Diggity over the beat from Kanye West’s Flashing Lights-is sure to get the party started every time. Although half the fun is sitting, listening and trying to figure out what samples are being used.

    7. Mike Doughty “Golden Delicious”

    The latest solo effort from the former Soul Coughing frontman has a loosey-goosey quality to it-like a bunch of dudes just showed up at the studio and decided to jam. The fact that it’s a little sloppy-sounding is part of it’s charm. My favorites on this album are the somber Wednesday (Contra La Puerta) and the politically-charged Fort Hood, which lifts the chorus from the Sixties classic Let the Sunshine In to create one of the most emotionally affecting songs of the year. One of my favorite moments of 2008 was being able to tell Doughty in person how much that song meant to me.

    6. Shelby Lynne “Just a Little Lovin’”

    Shelby Lynne was meant to sing to intimate arrangements like the ones on this album-a collection of Dusty Springfield covers that sounds like it was recorded in a smoky nightclub. Lynne’s readings of songs like Anyone Who Had a Heart and How Can I Be Sure are almost painfully direct-like she’s singing the songs to you alone. This album made me run out and buy Dusty in Memphis to hear where Shelby got her inspiration from.


    Anyone Who Had A Heart – Shelby Lynne

    5. Robyn “Robyn”

    Most females in pop these days have a sort of manufactured sassiness. With the exception of P!nk, it’s hard to find one American girl pop singer with an attitude that doesn’t seem put on. Thankfully, Swedish singer Robyn returned after a ten (ten!!) year absence to show the girls how it’s really done. Whether rapping or singing, these electro-bounce tunes had chutzpah to spare, and songs like Be Mine proved that Robyn could put across heartbreak just as easily as she could put across badassitude.

    4. Kanye West “808s & Heartbreak”

    And to think, I thought this album was going to be a huge disappointment. Kanye deserves your props just for abandoning a style that had earned him critical respect and commercial rewards for something a little more intimate. Maintaining his stellar production standards, Mr. West went all the way left and made an album influenced more by Thom Yorke than Jay-Z. While the lyrics could have used a bit more fine-tuning, 808s proves that Kanye is a master at setting a mood, and anyone that makes Auto-Tune tolerable deserves a hearty pat on the back from me.

    3. Ne-Yo “Year of the Gentleman”

    The guy with one of the sharpest pen games in pop music sharpened that pen even more for his excellent third album. If you’re looking for an album that discusses relationships with more realism than the average album, you wanna check this out. If you just suffered a breakup and you want to wallow a little, check this album out. If you just want to hear well-crafted pop/soul music, check this album out. Year of the Gentleman vaulted Ne-Yo far above the Chris Browns, Ushers and Timberlakes of the world. Those guys have a lot of catching up to do.

    2. Q-Tip “The Renaissance”

    Another artist returning after nearly a decade-long break was Q-Tip, former leader of A Tribe Called Quest. As a member of that groundbreaking hip-hop outfit, Tip was responsible for two if not three of the greatest albums in rap music history. The Renaissance‘s smart rhymes and booty-shaking beats proved that Tip didn’t need Phife Dawg or Ali Shaheed Muhammad to make a classic.

    1. Vampire Weekend “Vampire Weekend”

    Four Columbia University undergrads, armed with a handful of Afrobeat records (and I’d imagine copies of Paul Simon’s Graceland and Talking Heads’ Remain in Light), decide to make an African-influenced indie pop album that references the M-79 bus, Lil’ Jon’s Get Low, Peter Gabriel and oxford commas, while giving shouts out to the “bears in Provincetown”. Sounds like a recipe for the best album of the year? Not quite. However, Vampire Weekend made 2008’s most enjoyable album by following one very simple rule-HAVE FUN. Their self-titled debut brought a smile to my face and a wiggle to my hips every time I heard it, and sometimes, that’s all you need.

    So there you have it, folks. My favorite albums of 2008. Here’s hoping that 2009 brings you all that you wish for. Happy New Year!

  • SonicClash Best of 2008: Greg’s Turn

    Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone. Our own Greg Harrell has passed on his own indie-tastic list of his favorites of 2008. Have a look-see, won’t you?

    20.) Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold

    19.) The Verve – Forth

    18.) Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See it

    17.) Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line

    16.) Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends

    15.) Robyn – Robyn

    14.) Bloc Party – Intimacy

    13.) The Streets – Everything Is Borrowed

    12.) Shearwater – Rook

    11.) ohGr – Devils in my Details

    10.) The Mars Volta – The Bedlam In Goliath

    Were it not for a handful of shitty songs, this would easily be album of the year. “Metatron” is the greatest thing anybody recorded in 2008, and when this record’s on, it’ll give you seizures. Seriously, Curtis Mayfield could’ve written “Goliath” after a weekend of dropping acid in the desert. Occultist prog-rock doesn’t get any better.

    9.) Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eryum Vid Spilium Endalaust

    This record is every bit as “Sigur Ros” as anything these crazy Icelandic bastards have done in the past: meaning it sounds very much like pop music from some beautiful alien civilization. Still, the band decided to throw in a few curveballs, and it definitely sounds much…earthier than anything else they’ve done, probably because the sweeping electric guitars of yore have been replaced with acoustics. Surprisingly, they pull the folky direction off beautifully. The sweet ballad “Illgresi” has made it onto just about every mixtape I’ve burned this year, “Gobbledigook” is a gleeful sprint through the woods, and the angelic explosion of “Ara batur” is just paralyzingly beautiful. I don’t know what the hell world these guys inhabit, but I’d sure like to visit it someday.

    8.) TV on the Radio – Dear Science

    Depending on whose reading this, you either have no idea who the fuck TV on the Radio is or you’ve had the brilliance of this record shoved down your throat so many times that you’re completely sick of it. So yeah, TV on the Radio experiments with dance / disco / afro-beat / new wave, everybody loves it and I’m already sick of talking about it.

    7.) Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak

    I wasn’t as scared of this record as a lot of people were. I dug “Love Lockdown” from the get go, and figured if anyone could make a great record out of the autotune it would be Kanye. Sure enough, he proved me right. If for whatever reason you haven’t heard this yet, “808s & Heartbreak” finds Mr. West going a more somber route. Yeah, there’s singing; yeah, there’s heartbreak; yeah, there are 808s too incidentally enough. I don’t know if this as radical as some people have made it out to be, seeing as there are at least four great singles on this album, but whether you love the man or hate him, you’ve gotta respect his artistic daring. I mean, how many times has Kanye reinvented his style now? Exactly. I don’t really know where to place the sound of this record: somewhere between the “walking through the streets at night contemplating what an utter failure your life has become” sound of Burial’s last record, the catchier side of Depeche Mode and the more Eurocentric songs from “Graduation.” It’s a hell of a statement, and nobody other than Kanye West could’ve possibly made it.

    6.) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

    Imagine “Highway 61 Revisited” plowed into the Doors’ self-titled record. “Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!” is the result.

    5.) Beck – Modern Guilt

    Beck writes a bunch of apocalyptic songs and gets Dangermouse to provide some colorful and vaguely psychedelic beats. Naturally, the result is brilliance.

    4.) Q-Tip – The Renaissance

    The only legitimately great hip-hop record released this year (“808s” is a little too leftfield to qualify as hip-hop exclusively). Q-Tip does something that not too many pioneers of the genre are willing to do: he looks forward instead of trying to plagiarize himself. The result is an excellent hip-hop medley, sometimes jazzy, sometimes soulful, always electrifying. Tip puts everybody doing this to shame so astoundingly, and so effortlessly, it’s almost humbling.

    3.) Portishead – Third
    Speaking of leftfield comebacks, holy shit this record is amazing. Considering that trip-hop (which isn’t really a genre but let’s pretend it is for a sentence) has essentially been left to fester in a ditch, I can’t say I was expecting Portishead to pull off a masterpiece. But lo and behold they did. Beth Gibbons sounds as lovely as ever, and the other two guys still know how to convert dank and despair into beauty. From the shimmering “Hunter” to the bubbling “Rip” to the foggy “Small,” there’s not a bad song here. Proof that your musical idols aren’t always content to just sit on their asses and exploit their legacies.

    2.) Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

    The sound of a white wolf pawing at the moon. Music don’t get much sadder and wintry than this.

    1.) Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

    How the hell have these guys not blown up yet? Seriously, “Grounds for Divorce” alone should have made them a household name. Well, unless Judd Apatow decides to use one of their songs to promote his next movie, I guess these guys are gonna have to remain a secret. “The Seldom Seen Kid” goes everywhere: one track you’re soaring through space, the next you’re getting stretched through a funhouse mirror. One minute you’re sitting on top of a skyscraper, the next you’re walking past a friend’s grave. And so on. Guy Garvey is an absolutely brilliant songwriter, and the lyrics wash through you as if the feelings were your own. As a singer, he’s capable of evoking both the tenderness of Chris Martin and the swagger of Peter Gabriel (who I guess could be tender too but…um…). If you’ve yet to hear this, then look up the dazzling “Mirrorball.” If that song doesn’t move you then I don’t want to share the same…planet as you. Get out.

  • New Music Revue: Robyn’s Back and It’s Almost Worth the 10 Year Wait

    A few months ago, I gave Robyn some serious props on this very site. The Swedish singer had just released The Rakamonie EP, a teaser of sorts for her first American album in over a decade. The full-length finally arrived on American shores a little over a month ago, and it’s certainly well worth the wait.

    Robyn's new self-titled release is in stores and online now.

    For those that need catching up, Robyn was the bridge between the “urban” teenage girl singer wave of 1994-1995 (Monica, Aaliyah, and Brandy) and the “pop” teenage girl singer wave of 1998-1999 (Britney, Christina, Jessica). Hits like “Show Me Love” and “Do You Know (What it Takes)” were frothy and poppy (are Scandinavians born with a gene that allows them to make hooky pop songs?), but Robyn’s singing voice was powerful enough to give her some R&B respect. Her debut album, “Robyn is Here”, was successful enough, eventually selling a million copies. However, about a year and a half after Robyn’s debut album was released, Jive Records put out Britney Spears’ debut, and Robyn was promptly forgotten about. If you get similar songs and give them to a pretty but talented cipher who’s willing to sing them while prancing around half-naked, why take a chance with someone who might exert a little artistic tension?

    Anyway, Robyn retreated from the American music scene as quickly as she’d gotten there, returning to her homeland and releasing music that was well-received throughout Europe but never released in the States. A song called “Konichiwa Bitches” got some indie/hipster love about three years ago, and it set the stage for Robyn’s return as a slightly edgier, but still pop-friendly American recording artist. “Robyn” is actually a compilation of sorts, mixing new cuts with songs that have been out abroad for a couple of years, but it still holds together as a cohesive album. Think of it as “FutureSex/LoveSounds”, only with balls.

    “Balls” is the operative word here, as Robyn spends a great deal of this album talking shit to the opposite sex. The aforementioned “Konichiwa Bitches” is the greatest Missy Elliott song Missy Elliott never made, with Robyn rapping playfully about how hot she is: “Right now you’re probably thinking ‘how she get in them jeans’/Well I’m gifted, all natural and bursting at the seams”. It’s full of attitude, but you get the impression that Robyn’s just having fun with it. “Handle Me” sounds a bit like the Ne-Yo/Stargate/”Irreplaceable” sound that’s infiltrated the radio over the past two years, but Robyn’s emasculating lyrics have a bit more bite than Beyonce’s (wait, she didn’t write that one).

    “Be Mine” proves that a great melody is a great melody, whether performed as a more upbeat dance/pop tune (like on this album) or a somber piano ballad (like on the aforementioned EP). “Crash & Burn Girl” is a heater guaranteed to light up dance floors worldwide and also finds Robyn rocking a very Prince-like falsetto, and “Anytime You Like” is an ethereal beat ballad that sounds strangely sensual, considering she’s singing about a breakup. Guess that’s something else she learned from the Purple One.

    Not quite sure why the hipster crowd has latched on to this album-it pretty much defines what pop is right now. It’s danceable, youthful and fun, and manages to take everything artists like Fergie and Gwen Stefani try to do and do it correctly. If you remember Robyn’s first American album fondly, it’s probably time to head down to ye olde record store and welcome back an old friend. If you’re only hearing of Robyn for the first time and want to hear some quality pop music, pick this one up and thank me later.