- Robyn and Röyksopp want you to think of them as a band, and not just collaborators. They've worked together before ("The Girl And The Robot," "None Of Dem"), but their more substantial partnership this time came almost out of necessity. Robyn returned from her Body Talk tour emotionally spent and artistically exhausted. She moved to Röyksopp's hometown of Bergen, Norway, in the hope of finding some inspiration. Together the trio found it, through bonding, friendship and wild nights of partying. The end product, the five-track EP Do It Again, explores hedonism, love and artistic anxiety through the prism of festival-ready electro house.
The lead single and title track is a hit-you-over-the-head party anthem full of fluttering synths and slamming drums. It's a pure pleasure overload with a heart-in-mouth breakdown for good measure. Robyn's lyrics are painfully simplistic, but hidden deep in clichés like "It hurts so good" and "Wait for the build-up" is a sort of existential ache. Look at it from one angle and it's a humorously straightforward club banger, but inspect it more closely and it's a comment on bad habits ("And when we come down / We just do it again") or a metaphor for a flawed relationship. The track wouldn't be much without Robyn's powerful vocal performance, balancing wounded pride and nervous excitement to deliver these lyrics like no one else could.
The rest of the EP veers between silly and serious. "Sayit" could be a holdover from 2009. Robyn trades lines with a glitchy computer voice á la Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction," with surging scales and pounding drums that make it hard to dislike. "Every Little Thing" is a power ballad rendered in dramatic dubstep thrusts. That leaves the bookends: two ten-minute sagas that raise and lower the curtain in truly theatrical style. "Monument," inspired by sculpture artist Juliana Cerqueira Leite, concerns itself with artistic intent and legacy, as Robyn defiantly commands lines like "Make a space for my body... this will be my monument / This will be my beacon when I'm gone" over a bed of synths and auspicious choral pads. Later, her voice is twisted apart until it disintegrates, leaving behind a bleating sax to lead the track into its twilight hours. Those same elements are turned dark and mournful on "Inside The Idle Hour Club." Though Robyn is basically inaudible, you can still feel her presence in the wistful melodies. It's a drawn-out way to end an emotional roller coaster of an EP.
TracklistA1 Monument
A2 Sayit
B1 Do It Again
B2 Every Little Thing
B3 Inside The Idle Hour Club