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08/Caribou - Swim & Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 1
During the first half of Robyn’s Body Talk EP, we’re placed in the club and on the dancefloor, “suited and booted”, putting on a show; two stepping, sweat dropping, and body talking to the beat. There with us is Robyn, frantically trying to get that boy’s attention, watching him woo HER, and give just about everything to this girl that’s not named Robyn. Unfortunately, at this moment, she is not the apple of his eye. Robyn sees this, acknowledges this, and in the end decides to keep dancing on her own. And really, who can blame her when she’s backed by such vibrant sounds as those bubbling underneath? She dances to the beat, SUCCUMBS to the beat, and we do too, as the music wouldn’t have it any other way. This act reigns supreme both here on Body Talk, Pt.1, and on Caribou’s equally hypnotic LP Swim. Both albums seek transcendence through song (and often on a dancefloor). Instruments crash, fall, and coalesce in an tantalizingly rhythmic fashion repeatedly over the course of each album’s running time. With Swim and Body Talk Pt. 1, the music is given free rein to be as expressive or understated as it wants to be, as both Robyn and Caribou mastermind Dan Snaith control the knobs, setting the emotional tone with a vocal presence here, a switch in the tempo or melody there, or a minute (or three or four in Caribou’s case) of simply letting the beat breathe. Each album toys with the idea of pop & dance music as something that is highly malleable; A template that can be bent, stretched, and shaped to accommodate the wants and desires of their music at hand, giving them the opportunity to produce what they want, how they want. Here, the music is in good hands and the handiwork is exquisite. Mission accomplished.
KEY TRACKS (CARIBOU): Odessa/Run/Leave House
KEY TRACKS: (ROBYN): Don’t F***ing Tell Me What to Do/Fembot/Dancing on My Own
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