There are rumours circulating that Swedish pop supremo Robyn's record label wanted her age to be kept out of interviews or at least played down, simply because she's over...wait for it...30 years of age! Given this nugget of information, it must have been hard for Robyn to film this video for the mind-meltingly good 'Dancing On My Own', seeing as much of it takes place in a club with loads of young people getting off with each other and being all young and gross.
Whatever her age, the woman knows how to wring every drop of emotion out of a song, doesn't she? Those violent gestures, that anguished face, the smoke machines! Watch it here:
Robyn 'Dancing On My Own' (Official Video) from Robyn on Vimeo.
Everyone's current favourite British female songstress Florence & The Machine, is set to release her twentieth single. 'Cosmic Love' was always the song on the album that screamed "THIRD SINGLE", and despite the delay, it's still a genuinely beautiful love song. The video continues the visual theme of most of the videos from Lungs, i.e. Florence leaps about with gleeful abandon, flinging her hair around like a banshee and generally being spooky and ethereal. All of this is a good thing in a video by the way.
As with 'Be Mine!' and 'With Every Heartbeat', 'Dancing On My Own' simultaneously crackles with energy but also soaks istelf with real tears, Robyn imagining herself stood in the corner of a club whilst her former boyfriend starts a new relationship right in front of her eyes. Over a stuttering, pulsating beat and minimal clicks, Robyn laments, "I'm in the corner / Watching you kiss her / Oh, oh, oh" and it sounds like a heartbreak. The best bit is when the music falls away and it's just Robyn and a piano, then the chorus comes back in and that beat erupts from nowhere and you want to leap about with snot and tears streaming down your face.
You can listen to a poor quality rip of it here or download it from here.
Meanwhile, this is a brilliant performance of 'Fembot' taken from some Swedish TV show:
We didn't think this day would ever come, so let us take a moment...Ladies and gentlemen, A NEW ROBYN SONG! 'No Hassle' has somehow made it's way onto the internet and we're incredibly thankful to whoever leaked it. Robyn's last album is one of Musick's favourite things in recent years and it's been too long since we heard a new Robyn track that wasn't a collaboration. Er, not that this isn't, seeing as it was produced by Diplo, but it's still got her stamp all over it. It's also got a nice reggae feel to it, which makes it the aural equivalent of a working title for one of Stephen Malkmus' solo albums; Swedish reggae.
The song has now been taken off youtube, but you can watch a clip of them in the studio here and, erm, perhaps, download it if you so wish (we're not saying you should of course).
Imagine if Sting was your Dad...just imagine, for one second, that Sting was your Dad. Not only is Sting your Dad, but Trudie Styler is your Mum and practically all anyone cares about now is that your Dad and Mum allegedly engage in hours and hours of tantric sex, possibly whilst you cry in the room next door.
This isn't imaginary for Coco Sumner (the spawn of one of those long evenings of coitus), who has decided to become a musician and goes by the moniker, I Blame Coco. Weirdly, and perhaps this is a reaction to her Dad being Sting or perhaps it's because she's not very good, but her name was nowhere on the Big in 2010 lists. This is her first single proper and it features the always incredibly amazingly fantastic, Robyn.
Either way you cut it, "I want to annoy / And I'm going to enjoy it", is a pretty good opening salvo.
Anyone familiar with Musick will know that we're quite big fans of all things Scandinavian. From Robyn to Lykke Li to Fever Ray to Wildbirds & Peacedrums to Roxette to Ace of Base (ahem). Well, add to that ever growing list another name- Manna. She looks like this:
Born in Paris, but now living in Finland, Manna makes the kind of music that Scandinavians seem to create in their sleep. 'Some Girls/Some Boys' is deliciously catchy, cloaked in melody and carries that magnetic quality that Scando-pop (no? No.) must have. First listen you think it's pretty good, then it reveals itself even more second time around and by the third listen you want to track Manna down and marry her. It's what LadyHawke would sound like if she weren't always seemingly half asleep.
Manna isn't on youtube yet, so click on her myspace instead.
While we're at it, here's another Scandinavian pop star by the name of Erik Hassle from Sweden. 'Hurtful' has been described by 'friend of the blog' Marina from Marina & The Diamonds as "really heartfelt cringe-pop"*, which sounds about right and is in no way a bad thing:
It's nice to see the girl from Annie still getting work too.
*Well, she was actually quoting someone else, so it is in fact a quote of a quote of a quote, so doesn't accurately reflect the opinions of Marina per se. Glad we cleared that up.
