On her fifth studio album, Robin Miriam Carlsson, manages to do something that Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera have never done before: Create unabashed pop music that you can actually tell your friends about. Gone are the days of lip-synching “Toxic” in the shower, or trying to be a “Genie In A Bottle” while you towel yourself off. Instead, Carlsson– better known as Robyn – makes you want to blast songs like “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What to Do” and “Cry When You Get Older” with the windows down while you roll up to your ten year high school reunion.
Sure, there are some weak cuts on the 30-minute disc, but even the less impressive songs easily trump the watered-down femme-pop that saturates the radio today. The Diplo-produced “Dancehall Queen” sounds like an under thought exercise in dubstep, but Carlsson’s earnest vocal eventually saves the song, which suffers from a tired reggae riff and ill-advised bass farts. And although “None of Dem” falls into the same “good but forgettable” category as “Dancehall”, there are several gems on Body Talk Pt. 1.
“Fembot” is a feel good pop song from the next millennium that updates an age old adage by declaring that “once you go tech/you ain’t never going back.” With a very tastefully auto-tuned pseudo rap, Carlsson lets you know that she’s got “a lot of automatic booty applications” and a “super brain that’s binary.” The chorus is instantly unforgettable and the tune makes you really want to plug into what the 31-year-old Swede from Stockholm is presumably offering up.
Still, the best part comes on the fourth track of the eight-song offering. “Cry When You Get Older” is the complete evolution of the pop song. It’s a three-and-a-half minute ode to relationships that proclaims, “love hurts when you do it right.” The cut tells the story of all the angst and longing of your many failed teenage crushes over Klas Ählund’s pristine blend of bass and synth, and an boasts an anthemic chorus that would make your 55-year-old mortgage broker father grab a hair comb and get his Miley on.
Carlsson told Swedish magazine, Bon, that she had plans to release three albums in 2010, adding that “I got all these great songs, why not?” With a release like this one leading the way, she should definitely bring it on.


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