I went to see Robyn on a bit of an accident. I was thinking that I was seeing Annie, a female pop act that I had heard some years ago and thought to myself that “I should remember the name ‘Annie'” to file and retrieve again when the name shows up again on a show bill. Well the file got corrupted over the years in my beer soaked Random Access Memory and when I saw the similarly mono-named Robyn playing Highline Ballroom, I thought I had best check her out. A little to my defense, I did do a pre-show interweb search before buying the ticket, and saw that Robyn was from Sweden and at some point named in the same sentence as The Knife, so I figured that that must be the same cat that I told myself to remember some years ago. Being a major sucker for anything out of Sweden, I left my search at that. Anywho, it wasn’t what I now know as Annie, but I wasn’t entirely disappointed.
Robyn’s recent history is a bit of the nauseatingly typical cautionary tale of signing to a shit corporate record label. Apparently Robyn had been a huge star in her native Sweden and had her career sidetracked because she became shocked (shocked!) when she lost creative control when signing to Jive records – the home of such independently creative powerhouses as O-town, N-Sync, and BackStreet Boys. Apparently that is all over and she is back on track following her own muse.
As you will recognize by the trademark synth sound, this is a collaboration Robyn did with fellow Swedesters, The Knife.
[audio: http://thesoundofindie.com/archive/2008/20080214/Robyn-WhosThatGirl.mp3|titles=Who’s That Girl (Live)|artists=Robyn]
Download: Robyn – Who’s That Girl (Live)
