The opening track on Swedish pop star Robyn's first album in eight years is a banger, yes, but it's also misleading.
The song, Missing U, sounds like the Robyn her fans have heard before, specifically on her previous two releases, 2005's Robyn and 2010's Body Talk, only dreamier. The subject matter is something the singer is known for - loneliness and heartbreak (brought on this time by a death rather than a break-up), set to a booming electro-pop beat. She wants you to dance, yes, but she wants you to cry while you do it. That's not to say Missing U is boring - it's fantastic - but it feels out of step with the rest of the album. Despite the vulnerability of its lyrics, it's old-school Robyn: "fembot", punchy, strong Robyn. But that's not the Robyn who is present throughout the rest of the album, Honey.
The Robyn we meet on Honey is showing a softer side she has not shown before - she's becoming more human as other electro-pop singers around her become more droid. Robyn used to be fiercely and charmingly robotic, and now that everyone else is doing that she's going in the opposite direction.
Honey - nine tracks sprawled over 41 minutes - has more breathing room than her previous releases. It's dreamy, sneakily infectious and sexy; it could sit comfortably alongside Irish moody electro goddess Roisin Murphy's most recent releases.
So, as cool as Missing U is, Honey only really kicks off with track two: the smooth, catchy, R&B-tinged Human Being. She's certainly had livelier songs, but she's never sounded more alive. She's begging a lover to see past her flaws and her aloofness (she's a Gemini, after all), to see her as a human being: "move your body closer to mine," she implores, seducing not just the subject of her desire, but the listener too.
It's one of the best songs on the album, but it has stiff competition...