Bomb Alert! Robyn’s ‘Dancehall Queen’

Bomb Alert! Robyn’s ‘Dancehall Queen’

28 April, 2010 | 7.00AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Videos: bomb alert, diplo, robyn

We interrupt our regularly scheduled house and techno coverage to bring you news of an unexpectedly pop nature. Yeah, I know, you probably don’t come to Beatportal for pop music. But bear with me.

This week the Swedish electro-pop princess Robyn released a trio of singles, ‘Fembot’, ‘None of Dem’, and ‘Dancehall Queen’. And right now, ‘Dancehall Queen’ is sounding to me like a contender for the song of the year.

Robyn, ‘Dancehall Queen’

Part of what I love about it is its sheer wrongness. By all rights, it simply shouldn’t work. A Swedish electro-pop star bragging, “I still run this thing like a dancehall queen”? “Riddim goes boom-boom-boom“? A ‘Sleng Teng’ shoutout?! You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?

And yet, and yet, and yet. Despite all of that, or maybe even because of it, the tune slays. A huge part of it is thanks to Diplo, who seems to have had much more fun crafting this slice of sunny-day digi-reggae than he did sampling Suicide for M.I.A.’s new ‘Born Free’. The skanking groove offers a fond tribute to ‘80s Casiotone dancehall. The slippery G-funk lead sounds like a friendly nod to Joker and Zomby, while the buzzsaw bass is almost like a parody of weeble-wobble dubstep, stonking and gloriously stoopid.

And then there’s that chorus, which riffs on Martika’s 1988 hit ‘Toy Soldiers’, for goodness’ sake.

If you can’t tell, I’m smitten. The thing is, for all the song’s sense of knowingness and all its winking references, it ultimately comes off as refreshingly carefree and innocent. Listen to that first verse:

“I take the bus to town, sittin’ in the back and talk to no one/ I got the high heels on, I go out dancing all by my own/ People are pushing by, somebody always tries to cut in line/ Soon as I get inside, I lose myself in the blinding lights”

Ultimately, it’s a song about a girl that just wants to go out and dance. Everything else — all that “hassle” — simply dissolves when the bass drops.

Who can’t relate to that?

While you’re at it, don’t miss ‘None of Dem’, featuring Royksopp. Aside from the title and Robyn’s faint, quasi-patois inflections, it’s not explicitly influenced by dancehall. Sounding a little like a poppier version of Motiivi:Tuntematon, it’s more like a buzzing, earthshaking kind of electro house, an apocalyptic showdown between major and minor, an epic to end all epics.

Finally, in one of the weirder promotional ideas I’ve ever seen, Robyn has created a gallery where you can upload video of yourself listening to ‘None of Dem’; watch Robyn’s own theatrics here.

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