Robyn – Who’s That Girl (Konichiwa)
3/5
By: Michael Cragg
Is there anyone making pop singles as good as Robyn at the moment? This is the fourth single to be lifted from the Swedish pop minstrel's brilliant comeback album, a comeback so unexpected that even she must have done a double take when previous single 'Heartbeat' leapt to number one last year.
The comeback is so complete that Robyn now finds herself in that enviable position of being cool enough to rope in The Knife for production duties on this single, whilst still being deemed pop enough to sing backing vocals on Britney's 'Piece Of Me'. It also means that she can earn the money whilst getting the kudos, a dream position that must have looked pretty unlikely after she brought herself out of her early recording contract.
Musically, 'Who's That Girl' is playful like early Madonna (surely the title is an added homage), but with synth stabs and thumping beats that make it heavier then your usual radio playlist fodder. Lyrically, it touches on Robyn's previous musical history, the period after 'Show Me Love' when she was being moulded into a pre-Britney Britney. Speaking of whom, you can't help but think that this single would have made the perfect riposte for Miss Spears as Robyn spits; "The girls are pretty/ Like all the time/ I'm just pretty some of the time...I just can't deal with the rules/ I can't stand the pressure". As an indictment of celebrity culture it's painfully accurate.
The one down side to all this is that another single means another round of press, which means more touring, which means no new material. Robyn, the album, was released way back in 2005 and whilst we're not getting bored of it yet, surely she is. It will be interesting to see where she goes next, hopefully she can avoid the 'get Timbaland to fix it even though it's not broken' route currently travelled by many of her peers.
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