Robyn’s body of work starts taking shape
“BODY TALK PT. 2,” Robyn (Cherrytree/Interscope)
The middle act of Robyn’s planned three-pronged series, “Body Talk Pt. 2,” plays more cohesively than her first “Body Talk” from earlier this year, so perhaps she’s going somewhere.
The Swedish dance/pop singer came across as disjointed with “Body Talk Pt. 1” as a few stirring songs worked their way out of the scattershot mix. Although she starts “Pt. 2” with the slow and overreaching synth-saturated track “In My Eyes,” Robyn quickly finds her groove.
As hinted at by the “Pt. 1” track “Fembot” and reinforced on “Pt. 2,” the singer is emerging with a woman/machine persona, a vocalist with a girlish voice and grand notions. Boosted by occasional infectious flashes of mainstream-friendly dance music, Robyn otherwise saddles beefy electronic arrangements with social commentary in a surprisingly experimental fashion, ripping a page from M.I.A.’s playbook and improving it.
Snoop Dogg, who seems to be everywhere these days, pops in for a playful guest appearance on the grainy, good-for-a-laugh “U Should Know Better,” and a sparkling redo of the “Pt. 1” track “Hang With Me” has broad appeal with its effervescent-pop makeover.
Yet it’s the darker, muscled-up mid-album tracks that throttle the senses. On the indefatigably bossy “Love Kills,” Robyn is immersed in the icily precise production, declaring, “In this cold hard world, you know that love kills.” The subsequent “We Dance to the Beat” harkens speaker-buster ’80s hip-hop with mind-bending determination: “We dance to the beat of radioactivity, blocking the exits.”
Robyn then shifts into full-on robotic mode for the otherworldly bump-and-grind of “Criminal Intent,” throbbing resonance encasing such mechanical lines as, “Somebody alert the authorities, I’ve got criminal intent.”
With luck, the trilogy will conclude with Robyn’s ultimate intentions proving worthy of this dynamic set-up.
Rating (five possible): 4
American Hi-Fi sounds better in the man cave
“FIGHT THE FREQUENCY,” American Hi-Fi (Hi-Fi Killers/The Ascot Club)
American Hi-Fi is like a boys’ night out for male frontman Stacy Jones and his bandmates, and even if the group’s new “Fight the Frequency” is more like a regular-season game than the Super Bowl, it’s nevertheless a blast of testosterone.
Jones’ rock career goes back to the 1990s, when he was drummer for the female-fronted bands Veruca Salt and Letters to Cleo. Now he’s music director for Miley Cyrus as well as her drummer, and he has produced records for the likes of Ingrid Michaelson and Meg & Dia. The other men in American Hi-Fi — guitarist Jamie Arentzen, bass player Drew Parsons and drummer Brian Nolan — have likewise had experience with women performers. Arentzen is Cyrus’ guitarist, and the bandmates have variously worked with Aimee Mann, Juliana Hatfield, Tanya Donelly and Tracy Bonham.
“Fight the Frequency” may not be a prizewinner, but it lands a few solid blows. The careening title track opens with a futuristic bent and hints of lyrical aspirations with lines like, “The truth is power if you listen.” And elsewhere American Hi-Fi baits a great hook with “Acetate” and recalls Smashing Pumpkins with the dreamy vocals and swarming guitars of “Stargazer.”
Fittingly, the men make their strongest impression when they extend themselves beyond their apparent comfort zone with the adrenaline-soaked “Frat Clump” featuring metallic crunch and Jones’ shout-sung vocals: “How long till I’ll be suffocated?”
Unfortunately, this music is the meat equivalent of chicken wings, not premium steaks, and the formulaic arrangements are offered with merely adequate service. The melodies are generally above-par, yet the execution is standard-bordering-on-bland with infrequent draining lapses. And Jones’ nasal vocals are both the weakest element and most distinctive characteristic of American Hi-Fi.
This familiar aural landscape isn’t art, and it often feels stuck in the ’90s. But boys will be boys.
Rating: 2-1/2
Rabbit! connects confection to infection
“CONNECT THE DOTS,” Rabbit! (Rock Salt Songwriters)
“Connect the Dots,” by Rabbit!, is like children’s music for adults.
It’s seductively sweet, methodically melodic and insanely infectious, and the choruses of various songs are built on “na-na-na’s,” “ba-ba-ba’s,” “la-la-la’s” or “do-do-do’s.”
The Mount Dora, Florida, quartet of Ashton Allen, Devin Moore, Emma Jean Branch and Yara Regan ingeniously construct the 17 tracks to sound simple and sing-songy. The result is a cross-section of Partridge Family pop, wide-eyed electro and traces of everyone from the Beatles to the B-52’s. Plus while the themes are mature, they’re no racier than, “How come you only kiss me when the coast is clear and safe?” from “Candy From a Car 2” and “I’ve got the recipe for making love/I’ll show you what it’s made of” from “Recipe for Love.”
Still, even if “Ladybug” (“You’re a little red gem, and I think you’re grand ... no one ever tells you what to do”) and “Jellybean” (“Dandelion towers blow away in the breeze”), truly could pass for children’s music, kids won’t be prepared for the gut check of “Sleepwalking”: “I’m so tired of sleepwalking through life ... I’m afraid to wake up.”
All four of the bandmates sing lead (as well as switch out at instruments), and all have gentle voices well suited for the melodies and harmonies, making them sugary passengers on the unassuming cadence of polite jangles, whimsical electronica and mellow grooves. It’s no wonder the music of Rabbit! has been plucked for several national ad campaigns.
And although “Connect the Dots” has rare moments of being too cute, it is at once comforting, refreshing and addictive.
Rating: 4
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