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It struggles for my brain to comprehend that it was seven years ago when Robyn released her last album, Honey, in 2018. Music empires have risen and fallen in that time, trends come and gone. And yet the Swedish superstar (emphasis on thee) who turned 46 this past June, sounds fresh as ever on her first original solo release since, “Dopamine.”
Written by herself, longtime collaborator Klas Åhlund and Taio Cruz, and produced with Åhlund, “Dopamine” is an exalted return. The pop landscape has changed wildly since she was last active; mainstream trends have traded the darkly muted, and confessional sounds of the late 2010s for bright, recession-coded dance-pop running through everything from Tate McRae’s YA bops to Charli xcx’s cool girl brat (which, of course, Robyn featured on). One might think this crowded playing field makes Robyn’s speciality sound feel less special but, incredibly, it does the opposite. Against these flimsy late-adopters, Robyn’s long devotion to the craft stands out like a light beam.
“Dopamine” is built around a heart-thumping BPM, Daft Punkian flashes of distortion, and her solid, emotive vocals. She’s singing about her allure and the chemistry that’s bubbled between her and a lover. She delivers the lyrics with an aching euphoria, like thrilling in something she knows is ersatz and likely temporary. “I know it’s just dopamine, but it feels real to me,” she sighs. The best part of the song is in its last 45 or so seconds, when things get quiet before the beat drops back in like an hundred ton weight.
Of her return, Robyn hasn’t said much, and in the build up to the single she’s only shared a cryptic maybe-lyrics and photo dumps of her out in Paris, traipsing in the city streets in fuzzy heels, taking photo shoots in lingerie, living her full, boundless life. Who says the spectrum of euphoria narrows the older you get? This understanding is what makes Robyn’s dance pop still stand out decades into her career and feel so sturdy against the trends, what makes her delivery of the lyric, “Nothing’s ever going to taste just as sweet” feel so real. Welcome back.
