Body Talk Pt. 2
Robyn
On “Hang with Me,” Robyn’s lead single from part two in her Body Talk series, the every-girl of (smart) pop is hesitant to fall in love. We, though, hardly had a choice. Just coming off the June release of the first installment, she’s adorably irresistible, emotionally exposed like the BFF you never had but, in Robyn’s wonderfully upfront way, almost do. That single from this edition – slightly beginning-to-end better than the first – is too good for words; a slice of bursting dream-pop that’s so honest and innocent it reads like a diary entry and feels more real than anything on radio, right where this particular charmer belongs. It’s heartily inviting, just like the two addictive openers before it, “In My Eyes” and “Include Me Out” – the latter featuring the silliest and sweetest of Left Eye-like breakdowns. Both songs are the consoling friends she needed when a lover broke her heart on the first disc’s “Dancing on My Own.” Sadness mostly sits out this time around, while Robyn warns that “Love Kills” and then shakes out some sass on “Criminal Intent” and the hardcore toughie “U Should Know Better,” alternating boasts with Snoop Dogg like a tag-team fierce enough to take down Osama bin Laden. She closes with “Indestructible,” and like the acoustic version of “Hang with Me” from Body Talk Pt. 1, it’s string-powered and sweetly melancholy. When the song is, as her cycle suggests, cut for the clubs on the third and final chapter, we’ll be right there – hanging with her.
Hands All Over
Maroon 5
Being as hot as frontman Adam Levine can only get you so far – it can’t hone a hook or write a pile of potential radio smashes. But as a band, Maroon 5 can, as they repeatedly have on pop hits so catchy they’re like big wads of bubblegum that your subconscious stepped in. That’s how “Misery,” the quintet’s first single from their third album, is made, too; with its beyond-infectious chorus and glossier sheen, it eases them into a dancier direction that goes full-on funky town with its follow-up, “Give a Little More.” Bursting with pep and oozing sexiness from Levine’s elastic pipes (the line “you make it so hard” could go so many ways), it’s as retro gay as the Scissor Sisters. The song’s also insanely catchy, but catchy doesn’t mean creative – and Hands All Over, even with producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange (the man behind Shania Twain’s hit trove), makes only simple strides to move Maroon 5 past their brand of procedural funky pop. Their most valiant attempt comes during a shameless crossover collaboration with country music’s Lady Antebellum on “Out of Goodbyes,” a snoozer that falls right in line with the other forgettable, cliché-riddled love songs on the easy-to-dismiss last half, like “How” and “Just a Feeling.” In fact, of all the ballads, “Never Gonna Leave This Bed” is the only one that doesn’t send you to slumber – how’s that for ironic?
Also Out
Nellie McKay, Home Sweet Mobile Home
The singing chameleon sheds another layer of skin on her fifth album, going cross-culture and beelining for Jamaica. Both “Caribbean Time” and “Unknown Reggae” get their island-vibe on, with McKay revisiting the playfulness that defined her debut. She’s also plaintive on the gorgeous “The Portal,” political on “No Equality,” and packing swagger on the jazzy feel-good “Dispossessed.” “I’m feeling like a cool cat with a cabaret hat,” she sings. Because, well, she is one.
Kristine W, Straight Up with a Twist
Dance divas shifting outside the box sounds so Cyndi Lauper, but another big voice is going for beyond-her-roots glory. Kristine W’s doing it over two discs: a laid-back, Latin-seasoned mix of covers and dance-songs-turned-ballads paired with a livelier, Sade-sounding second disc. Ms. W sounds divine, her silky pipes rising high above some pedestrian production, but scene queens will be looking for less chill, more kill. 