It’s time for the second installment of Robyn’s ‘Body Talk’ album release trilogy!
And here is our track by track review of it;
In My Eyes
One of the better tracks across the two albums. Total eighties electro pop, but with the emphasis on the pop. The chorus is adorable. And it’s got a great little melodious part at the end of the second and third choruses that begins with ”and though I bet you think it’s better on the inside…..”. And we love the inspirational lyrics of guidance that she gives. Especially the spoken word bits in the last few seconds. Robyn goes POP!
Include Me Out
After the first listen to the album, this was our favourite. The beat sequences in it are AMAZING! Like Diplo crossed with early Ciara. The verses are rapped. But the chorus is another big pop number, wow. With added amazing beats, too. In fact the chorus to this might even be the poppiest thing she’s done since her pre-independent days. After sleeping on it and giving it a few more listens, we’re not sure if it’s still our favourite. But it’s definitely an 8/10 moment for us. At least.
Hang With Me
You all know what this sounds like now. In fact a lot of people are calling it pop perfection, better than ‘Dancing On My Own’. We don’t agree that it’s that brilliant, but it is VERY good and we like it a lot. We’re still wondering if we’d have been able to enjoy this song a lot more had we not heard the acoustic version on Pt1 first.
Love Kills
Oh the intro to this is phenomenal! Robyn goes clubbing! And straight away come the hard hitting lyrics, warning you to get a stronger heart because love, and generally the world and life itself, are shit! We love how this follows ‘Hang With Me’. It’s as if Robyn has remembered herself after a temporary drop of her guard, and put it back up again stronger than ever! It’s dark, it’s cynical, but we’re surprised to discover that on an album containing rare pop moments from Robyn, it’s one of our favourites.
We Dance To The Beat
Hmmm…..we don’t really GET this. It’s pretty we guess. And imagine it would be quite nice to have on in the background. And the lyrics are good. And we like the synth spaz-out in the middle eight. And the dreamy bit near the end. But it’s just alright really. Not one of her stronger moments at all.
Criminal Intent
File this alongside ‘We Dance To The Beat’.
U Should Know Better
This is better! Impossible not to move your head along to the beat. It’s a bit of an electro rave out. If ‘Include Me Out’ sounded like Diplo crossed with Ciara, this is Diplo crossed with La Roux. And we love the Robyn and Snoop tag team vocals. Plus the lyrics. And the outro.
Indestructible
It’s string laden ballad time! Beautiful music with heartwrenching lyrics from our heroine. It’s Robyn letting her guard down again, but maintaining a hint of her trademark cool, by insisting that she’s going to be indestructible when it comes to love. It’s a great song as it is, but as with ‘Hang With Me’, there is an uptempo version waiting in the wings for the next album.
So the big question is – is it better than Pt1? No, it’s not. But it is a much more cohesive album. Whereas Pt1 felt like a disjointed EP that is part of a broader trilogy, Pt2 actually feels like a full standalone album. And for those reasons, it’s a much easier record to listen to. But it’s not as good. We’re giving it a 7.5/10. The two bad moments on it are inoffensive enough to not drag the overall mark down any lower. And the really great moments aren’t ‘Dancing On My Own’/’With Every Heartbeat’/’The Girl & The Robot’ brilliant enough to lift it any higher. But we do really like it.
