MC’s MUSIC LOUNGE: Robyn reclaims her place in electronic dance music with new single "Dopamine"

Notorious for taking long breaks in between music releases, Robyn has finally put an end to the seven-year drought. Her latest single “Dopamine” is a spin-off of some of the classic electronic sounds that we have come to know her, and more. Because she has always been able to create dance music that has you asking questions rather than just singing along to a catchy melody.

With this new single, Robyn is reclaiming her place in the space of electronic dance music, a place that she cemented back in 2010 when her album Body Talk took over the world. Dance music has seen a major boom in recent post-Covid years, a time period during which Robyn has been noticeably absent. Aside from her feature on a Charli XCX remix last year, she hasn’t released any music at all since her last album Honey back in 2018, making this her first new single in the post-pandemic world. Basically, she pulled a Sade on all of us and came back with a bang.

Seven years is a long time to go without a new album, and many artists wouldn’t be willing to step away for so long for fear of losing momentum or fans in the process. In Robyn’s case however, when you’re the type of artist who creates culture instead of following it, what is time anyway? Mariah Carey may not acknowledge time, but technically her latest album Here For It All also was her first new music in seven years. I’m sensing a trend here with the iconic divas, hmm…

Robyn has established herself as a pop music legend and has done so with fewer music releases than her contemporaries. While it has been seven years since her last album, by the time her new album is released next year it will make for an eight-year gap between albums. This is the exact same amount of time between her two previous releases Body Talk and Honey, so it seems that eight-year gaps between albums is Robyn’s current creative cycle. Between her recent appearance on SNL50: The Homecoming Concert with David Byrne, and “Dancing On My Own” being named Billboard’s 17th best dance song of all time, the lead-up to her return to pop music has been highly anticipated.

Next week, Tate McRae drops new tunes for a deluxe edition of her platinum album So Close To What. Plus, a new album from French diva Aya Nakamura. This week we discover new music from Robyn, Summer Walker, FKA twigs, Wale with Leon Thomas and HAYLA with Nelly Furtado. Plus, Lily Allen’s scathing kiss-off to David Harbour ushers her into the viral stratosphere, and an upcoming SNL stint.

Listen on…

MC’s PICKS OF THE WEEK

“Dopamine” by Robyn

Robyn’s voice soars on this electro-funk bop that sounds like Daft Punk meets disco. “Dopamine” is a song about the first hit of ecstasy you get when falling in love. As much as you enjoy it, you know it’s just a chemical reaction and it doesn’t necessarily last forever. Making the connection between emotions and science is an interesting notion, one that Robyn continues to explore on the song with lyrics like “tripping on the chemistry that’s firing up inside of me”. Our emotions are very real yes, but they are also just a product of biology. In a statement accompanying the release, Robyn talks about that duality and the challenge “to just accept that they’re there together and to be able to go in between”. Not your typical love song, that’s for damn sure. Ever since she abandoned the Max Martin sound of the 90s that was her early work, Robyn’s forays into electronic pop have helped pave the way for generations of artists, and she is widely considered to be one of the best in her field. So much of her music from the early 2010s sounds like the pop music of today, clearly showcasing her influences on acts like Charli XCX, Troye Sivan and more. I do love how her influence has manifested into other artists, but there’s nothing like the real thing. Robyn, we’ve missed you.

“FMT” by Summer Walker

The final installment in Summer Walker’s Over It trilogy is finally here, after a year’s long delay. Finally Over It doesn’t disappoint and “FMT” is the song sticking with me most. Summer has a great voice for a pop ballad, and this is one of the first times that she went this route on one of her originals. The song has a similar vibe to SZA’s “Nobody Gets Me” which proved to be a huge hit for her, it’s time for Summer to get hers! There are clear pop influences, but there’s also a tinge of some country in there, which for an artist who has stayed pretty consistent with her R&B sound, it’s both a departure and a risk. It pays off, in my opinion, making for one of her more captivating recent releases. It’s Summer Walker gone Adult Contemporary, the exact music that I have the biggest weakness for. Plus, like SZA’s song, it just sounds like a hit that has the potential to dominate radio stations and pharmacy speakers for years to come. “FMT” has been chosen as the official second single, so we may see that happen for real. The video is already out, and the promo tour is in motion so I can see the vision. The rest of the album is great too, leaning into the late-90s, early 2000s R&B sound, in tandem with the first album Over It. There are even Mariah Carey and Beyoncé samples in the mix. Summer, who has been notoriously shy in the past, has come leaps and bounds when it comes to showcasing her personality on stage and in interviews. Her latest appearance on The Terrell Show is the liveliest I’ve ever seen her, and with a few more appearances like this she could very well make this song a mainstream smash.

“HARD” by FKA twigs

The sequel album to FKA twigs’s most recent album EUSEXUA brings us this vibey song. “HARD” is as explicitly sexual of a track as you’d expect from an album titled EUSEXUA or in this case EUSEXUA AFTERGLOW. She coos that she is “physical and free” over the hypnotic ‘90s inspired instrumental, and begging her lover to “do it hard”. A lyric I can always get behind on its own, but pair it with the breathtaking way that she performs her vocals and you have me sold. The music video doesn’t disappoint either, showcasing her “hard” choreography over a black and white desert setting. It’s all giving Janet Jackson “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”, and that entire Herb Ritts look. Always a beautiful direction to go in for a video, but especially effective when the song is 90s-trance inspired. Every single dance step represents complete power and ownership of her space, sexuality and talents. Her work is like a piece of performance art of the highest quality, which is nothing new for her of course but still incredible to witness that type of consistency in someone’s creative projects. Also, it’s not just horny, it’s emotional-horny. That double edged sword of wanting the physical connection with someone so desperately yet wondering if they would want the same if you didn’t make your physical needs so apparent. “Would you do it if I didn’t ask you?” she asks while still maintaining that she will beg for the love regardless. Real.

“Watching Us” by Wale, Leon Thomas

I said I’d give the new Wale album a listen when hearing the single with Odeal, and to my absolute delight, the album was just as strong, with some tracks being even stronger than “City On Fire”. “Watching Us” had me from those first snaps, and then once the melody came in is when I recognized the very present interpolation of Goapele’s “Closer”, one of my favourite neo soul classics from the early aughts. Drake did his own version of the song on one of his earliest mixtapes Comeback Season all the way back in 2007 so it’s nice to see the song’s legacy continuing to live on through the decades, and by Leon Thomas nonetheless. The song sees the guys singing (and rapping) about wanting to flaunt their relationships without caring who sees, and it’s clear the lyrics come from a place of true infatuation and honeymoon love. Something that Mariah Carey did so exquisitely in the 90s and so forth is the merging of soulful melodies with rap music, and songs like these always feel like the fruits of her labours to me. The lesson here is there’s always a reason to thank Mimi for a beautiful song no matter who sings it, lol. This is certainly one of the brighter tracks on Wale’s new album everything is a lot., an album he claims he titled so because “that’s exactly how it feels sometimes” he says in a press release. Wale also recently popped up at Leon’s DC live show to perform the song for the first time for the lucky audience at The Fillmore. Looks like we have ourselves the next single.

“FADED” by HAYLA, Nelly Furtado

The final piece of new music from Nelly Furtado before her announced indefinite hiatus has arrived, and it comes in the form of a deep house duet with electronic artist HAYLA. HAYLA’s debut album only just came out last year, but she has already amassed an impressive fan base, specifically during her live shows. Her track with Nelly is symbolic for the two of them, as the song marks Nelly’s final intended release for the foreseeable future while HAYLA is only just starting to blow up. The lyrics tell a story about a love so intense that it makes you feel high, or “faded” as the ladies put it. Nelly’s instantly recognizable voice is floating through the song over the bouncy beat and compliments HAYLA’s seamlessly. In the past three years, Nelly has carved her own lane in the dance world with fan favourites like “Eat Your Man” and “Ready for Myself” that have been spinning in gay clubs since their releases. “FADED” fits perfectly in a playlist with those other tracks, it’s a shame Nelly is stepping back, because I feel like she fits with the genre very well. The two ladies also shot a visualizer for the song, nothing too groundbreaking but they look fabulous so I’ll take it. The song is clearly meant for the listener to escape into their own imagination anyway. I’m not usually one for deep house tracks, or really anything that sounds like you need to be on something to enjoy it. This is a special case, because rather than a headache, all this song gave me was the need to shake my ass. Should this be the last time we hear Nelly on some new music for a while, it’s at the very least a great way to close to a chapter.

MC’s VIRAL PICK

“Pussy Palace” by Lily Allen

It’s been a few weeks since Lily Allen’s bombshell album West End Girl was released, and she’s now set to appear as the musical guest on SNL with Josh O’Connor hosting on December 13th. “Pussy Palace” is the song that has everyone online talking of course, with Lily referring to David Harbour’s apartment as the palace in question, due to the amount of women that he was cheating on her with in said unit. Lily’s no-holds-barred writing leaves little to imagination, asking questions like “so am I looking at a sex addict”, or acknowledging her findings in the apartment like a “Duane Reade bag with the handles tied. Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside”. If you’re wondering why a song like this may be going viral, well consider it an exposé in the form of song. Except not all exposé’s sit at the top of the Spotify Viral Hits playlist, do they?

Each week since the album’s release it just gets bigger and bigger. Sure, the absolute savage destruction of David Harbour has created a worthy buzz, but also, the album is just one of her best works in decades. While we all love a scandal, the fact that she made some kick-ass music in the process makes for a sweet victory. “Pussy Palace” has taken over the internet, and social media users have been playing around with clean versions and titles of the song so as to not get shadow banned. When your song is so good that the influencers are shaking in their boots just to use it, you know you’ve got a winner.