20. Don\u2019t Fucking Tell Me What to Do (2010)<\/p>\n
Robyn has written and recorded more striking and melodically rich songs than this, but the opening track of Body Talk Part 1 might be this famously unbiddable pop star\u2019s mission statement: an appealingly minimal bit of house music that dismisses a list of eye-rolling complaints aimed at everything from the music industry to uncomfortable shoes by repeating the title over and over again.<\/p>\n
19. Giving You Back (1999)<\/p>\n
The first sign that Robyn was cut from a very different cloth to your average pop star: aged 19, she released Giving You Back, a beautiful but incredibly sad pop-R&B track about her decision to have an abortion. Her record label was horrified, refusing to release it in the US, but she stuck to her guns.<\/p>\n
18. Fembot (2010)Genuinely funny music \u2026 Robyn performs in Austin, Texas, in 2019. Photograph: Rick Kern\/WireImage<\/p>\n
One of the things that sets Robyn apart is how genuinely funny her music can be, which brings us to Fembot, a track that satirises societal expectations placed on women by depicting her as a kind of lust-racked android \u2013 \u201cinitiating slut mode!\u201d \u2013 and throws in a delightful candyfloss-hued chorus.<\/p>\n
17. Blow My Mind (2002)<\/p>\n
Only released in Sweden and overshadowed by what came after, Don\u2019t Stop the Music is a fascinating, interstitial album on which you can hear her gradual metamorphosis into Robyn 2.0. Blow My Mind was re-recorded for this year\u2019s Sexistential, but the slower, less synthy original is well worth checking out.<\/p>\n
16. Konichiwa Bitches (2005)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wanna rumble in my jungle? I\u2019ll take you on.\u201d Robyn comes out swinging on a track named after the independent label she started after abandoning her major label contract. Hip-hop-inspired but clearly not trying to be hip-hop, it\u2019s funny, don\u2019t-mess sassy and appealingly weird.<\/p>\n
15. Love Kills (2010)<\/p>\n
The Body Talk era \u2013 three mini albums in the space of 12 months, condensed into a compilation \u2013 offered listeners an embarrassment of riches. It wasn\u2019t just the profusion of material, it was said material\u2019s unerringly high quality: anyone else might have considered Body Talk Pt 2\u2019s chattering Love Kills as a single.<\/p>\n
14. Missing U (2018)<\/p>\n
Robyn\u2019s reputation grew and grew during the eight years between Body Talk and its follow-up, Honey \u2013 Dancing on My Own in particular remained inescapable \u2013 which meant Honey\u2019s more muted tone came as something of a shock. But beneath its understated sound lurked incredible songs: the affectingly heartsore Missing U is a case in point.<\/p>\n
13. Hang With Me (2010)Unerringly high quality \u2026 on stage in 2010. Photograph: Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Originally written for collaborator Klas \u00c5hlund\u2019s then-wife Paola Bruna but rewritten \u2013 and equipped with a new chorus \u2013 for Robyn, Hang With Me is a Pet Shop Boys-influenced joy from the minute its raised-eyebrow lines appear: \u201cWill you tell me once again how we\u2019re gonna be just friends?\u201d The acoustic version is great too.<\/p>\n
12. Indestructible (2010)<\/p>\n
Maximalist pop with a dash of disco-era Abba in the mix, the arrangement of Indestructible is based around waves of furious arpeggiated synths. The sound is striking, but it\u2019s Robyn\u2019s vocal that is the star: defiant in the face of past romantic failure, ready to throw herself headlong into another relationship.<\/p>\n
11. Show Me Love (1995)<\/p>\n
A Max Martin co-written global breakthrough hit for the teenage Robyn, Show Me Love is a superior example of R&B-infused 90s pop. Its sound feels a little dated \u2013 it\u2019s a very long way from Dancing on My Own or Call Your Girlfriend \u2013 but the song itself shines through the gloss.<\/p>\n
10. Talk to Me (2026)<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Sexistential album offered a brief but incredibly potent return to the full-blooded idiosyncratic electropop on which Robyn\u2019s reputation was built. It may last only 29 minutes, but every one of them is taken up with a full-bore banger, among them Talk to Me\u2019s agreeably filthy paean to phone sex.<\/p>\n
9. Who\u2019s That Girl? (2005)<\/p>\n
Over a spare but immense-sounding electronic backing, courtesy of the Knife \u2013 then in midst of their left-field super-pop Deep Cuts\/Silent Shout imperial phase \u2013 Robyn ponders gender identity: \u201cYou be the girl and I\u2019ll be the guy \u2026 would you love me any different?\u201d Bold and thought-provoking with an absolute beast of a chorus.<\/p>\n
8. Honey (2018)Slow-burn sensuality \u2026 in concert in Sweden in 2018. Photograph: IBL\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Robyn openly admitted that returning to making music took time and effort, and Honey\u2019s title track was apparently a struggle to complete \u2013 it involved sessions in Sweden, Paris and Los Angeles \u2013 but the labour was worth it: the beat is dancefloor-focused, but the song\u2019s real power lurks in its slow-burning sensuality.<\/p>\n
7. Do It Again (2014)<\/p>\n
Robyn and R\u00f6yksopp\u2019s collaborative EP ranged from experimentation \u2013 two tracks are nearly 10 minutes long \u2013 to Do It Again\u2019s full-on pop. Ostensibly about love, its lyrics seem to keep breaking the fourth wall and commenting on the music (\u201cwait for the buildup\u201d), while the sound fizzes and throbs, filled with dramatic stops and starts.<\/p>\n
6. Be Mine! (2005)<\/p>\n
Apparently influenced by Kate Bush\u2019s Cloudbusting, Be Mine!\u2019s saga of jealousy and unrequited love \u2013 \u201cI saw you at the station, you had your arm around what\u2019s-her-name\u201d \u2013 soars over an urgent string arrangement and a ticktocking drum machine. An improbable path to pop nirvana, but Be Mine! takes you there nonetheless.<\/p>\n
5. Dopamine (2025)<\/p>\n
Sexistential is the kind of album where it\u2019s difficult to pick a best track \u2013 its standard never dips. But let\u2019s go for single Dopamine and its perfect balance of the synthetic and the human: the lyrics explore the complex emotions around the most basic pop theme of all, falling in love.<\/p>\n
4. Ever Again (2018)<\/p>\n
The sleeper in Robyn\u2019s latterday catalogue, the Honey album takes a while to work its magic on the listener. But magic is something it possess in abundance. Ever Again may sound relatively subdued, but the melody is a low-key earworm, and the blend of fatalism and resolve in the post-breakup lyrics quietly packs a real emotional punch.<\/p>\n
3. Call Your Girlfriend (2010)\u2018Fierce but sweetly melodic.\u2019 Photograph: Casper Sejersen<\/p>\n
Call Your Girlfriend earns its spot in the pantheon of great pop songs about cheating, thanks to its blend of toughness \u2013 she\u2019s absolutely had it with being the other woman \u2013 and empathy: \u201cTell her that the only way her heart will mend is when she learns to love again\u201d. The music \u2013 fierce but sweetly melodic \u2013 matches perfectly.<\/p>\n
2. With Every Heartbeat (ft Kleerup) (2007)<\/p>\n
Show Me Love might have been her first hit, but With Every Heartbeat was Robyn\u2019s real breakthrough, on which, in the company of electropop producer Kleerup, she staked out her own unique space: killer songs, edgy synths, a willingness to take risks \u2013 check the lengthy string breakdown \u2013 and an apparently effortless cool. It still sounds amazing.<\/p>\n
1. Dancing on My Own (2010)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a reason why Dancing on My Own is regularly listed as not just Robyn\u2019s greatest song, but the best single of the 2010s full stop: even amid a catalogue filled with incredible songs, it has a lightning-in-a-bottle quality that sets it apart. Certainly, no other track of its era deploys the classic disco \u201csad banger\u201d cocktail of euphoric music and lyrical misery to such powerful effect. The melody is glorious, the backing relentless and propulsive, the lyrics are beautifully drawn and amplified by the vocal\u2019s shift between resignation and pleading: \u201cI\u2019m right over here, why can\u2019t you see me?\u201d is never not heartbreaking. It\u2019s as perfect as pop music gets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20. Don\u2019t Fucking Tell Me What to Do (2010) Robyn has written and recorded more striking and melodically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-521838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}