Is Robyn the embodiment of the strenuous woman who just doesn’t want to calm down, who is always somehow too much and appears too loud and over-excited at the wrong time? In the eyes of those people who perceive delimitation and exuberance as a threat, because both lead to not being able to have any sort of control over others, probably yes.
Robyn, whose career has been going on since she was twelve, doesn’t care about any of this. On the contrary. With a knack for style and escapism, she reliably delivers what lonely nights and days with their everyday stupidities urgently need: shine! Rhythm! Volume! SEX! On her ninth album SEXISTENTIAL she offers ideas about the latter in a confident and relaxed manner. Your own desires are formulated in words and beats, demands are made and offers are made. “Yeah I’m so close I’m almost there. Want you to tell me how to do it. It’s not as good by myself so baby will you talk me through it,” she sings in “Talk To Me” and puts the good old topic of phone sex back on its deserved pedestal.
She also discusses her own IVF treatment and motherhood, but separates this complex from her sex life. A highly feminist approach. Musically it is deconstructed that the rind cracks. Whenever you think you now know what’s coming, sound tracks that you weren’t currently on the list are brought to the foreground. A game of expectations that she “controls” in the truest sense of the word. SEXISTENTIAL tells about the protected spaces of the night. And that’s precisely why it shows us how physical “during the day” should actually be.
