8/8 - Give your reasons, say it's not her fault

I cannot even begin to explain how much I adore Robyn and her music. I honestly could have dedicated my entire blog to this Swedish electro-pop artist and had each post feature one of her unique music videos. No novice to the music industry, Robyn has been doing this since the age of 16, and, now aged 32, her sound has certainly grown with her. I first heard of her when the video for her hit song "Konichiwa Bitches" became somewhat viral. Her lyrics are punny, her voice is distinctive, her style is just so quirky and memorable, and all these factors made me keep coming back for more. And boy did she deliver. Her latest album Body Talk is as good, if not better than her previous Robyn (of which some of my absolute favorites were "Dancing On My Own", "Cobrastyle" (great video!) and "Every Heart Beat" in addition to "Konichiwa Bitches".)

In Body Talk, Robyn continues with the synthpop/electropop tracks coupled with touching, life-affirming lyrics to great effect. I could go on for days about how amazing each of her songs is but I'll keep it brief and let you listen/watch for yourselves:

Call Your Girlfriend

Indestructible

A note on "Indestructible": I love that the video shows sex in an honest yet still beautiful way, while the lyrics strike very close to home. To make this even better, there is an amazing Laidback Luke remix of this song.

7/8 - Now that's poetry in motion

For all fans of Derrick Comedy or the hit NBC show Community, if you haven't yet heard of Childish Gambino, you're definitely streets behind.

Donald Glover is the multi-talented actor, writer, comedian, and musician behind this stage name. His recently leaked album, Camp, set to be released November 15th, is promising to be as epic as his last EP, ironically/lazily titled EP. Indeed, his lyrics in Camp are as hilariously witty as before, and his experimentation with beats to complement his rap is, once again, very successful. Though Childish Gambino's style is reminiscent of many other rappers before him -- Kanye's cheekiness and creativity (Outside sounds very much like Kanye's Dark Fantasy), Drake's flow, Eminem's vocabulary, etc. -- he is unique and distinctive enough to be in a class of his own.

Though I am definitely loving this new release, it would be nice to see some growth in his work: he can't and shouldn't stick to his current tried and true formula, namely the barrage of punny cultural references and sexual innuendos with a few quality lines, for the rest of his career. So far, his subject matter has not changed much from album to album but I do hope he finds new topics to cover in his future releases.

In any case, do check it out for yourselves: the entire album is available for listen on NPR.

Some of my favorites so far are:

Bonfire

LOVE the beat in this one; also the twist ending (if it can be qualified as such):

Heartbeat

I particularly like how he actually sings in this one as opposed to just rapping:

Kids (Keep Up)