WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Tracklist: Really Real; Dopamine; Blow My Mind; Sucker For Love; It Doesn’t Mean A Thing; Talk To Me; Sexistential; Light Up; Into The Sun

We last saw Robyn onstage at The 02 as special guest of Charli XCX in 2024 and this summer she headlines there with this comeback album.

• Read on for reasons including how Robyn’s a trailblazer who’s maturing while still horny for Prince influences despite new motherhood post-break up

XCX may have sung on brat‘s I Think About It All The Time about pausing her career to have her baby but Robyn actually did it, breaking up with her long-term partner, embarking on solo IVF and in 2022 giving birth to son Tyko.

Sexistential is Robyn’s 9th album, the 1st since 2018’s downbeat Honey, and is only 9 tracks long. It’s essentially the sound of an artist dipping their toe in the water rather than full immersion but Robyn’s never been 1 to do what’s expected.

Metronomy‘s Joseph Mount has a co-write on opening track Really Real where Robyn contemplates a cup of tea and going to bed before a giant Prince-like guitar lick intervenes.

On Sucker For Love the keyboards are rubbery and there’s an occasional Kate Bush vocal inflection.

We’ve written about the singles and Talk To Me was our January song of the month of which we said it cemented ‘a sound reminiscent of 2010’s Body Talk trilogy during which she won most acclaim’.

The single about phone sex was released at the same time as the title track which explores having hook-up sex while pregnant through IVF.

Like brat it’s both musically and lyrically messy but why should Robyn embark on a middle age of cups of tea and early nights?

Dopamine (listen and watch above) was the lead single and November song of the month for us of which we described as ‘so effortlessly up and effervescent it can sit easily with Robyn’s best work including UK charttopper With Every Heartbeat and Swedish number 1 Dancing On My Own.‘

Robyn’s clearly a trailblazer who’s maturing while still horny for Prince influences despite new motherhood post-break up.

But it’s live where we expect these songs will make most sense and Robyn is supporting Harry Styles for 10 gigs in Amsterdam in May.

We saw her on her own arena tour on her return to The 02 in London in July.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Robyn Tickets
• Have you seen a Robyn show before and what did you think of this album? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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