Christian Falk featuring Robyn 'Dream On'

Chart Peak: 29
YouTube

'Dream On' is the stunning new single from Swedish artist and producer Christian Falk, it features sublime vocals from songstress and fellow Swede Robyn and looks set to set the charts alight on its release in November 2008

In fact, the single ended up being released in the very same week as this album itself, which may have hindered sales somewhat: in the even it barely made the Top 30 and spent only one more week in the Top 75. It's a remix of an original version released in Sweden in 2006, which also featured rock singer Ola Salo on harmony vocal; this version was issued to tie in with a re-release of Robyn's own album.

The version we have here is a fairly minimal-sounding electronic track, which I think I'd have called more iced than chilled. It's hard to parse lyrically - it combines a serious of hopeful sentiments with the chorus "Dream On" and I can't tell whether that's supposed to be sarcastic. I'm tempted to conclude from the musical mood that it is, which makes the song a bit difficult to like. I suppose it has a certain glacial prettiness about it but the original might actually have been better.

Robyn also appears on: Now 68 [with Kleerup], 69, 76
Available on: 20 Chilled Beats

Robyn 'Be Mine!'

Chart Peak: 10

YouTube

There have been a few remarkable comebacks in pop in the last few years, but perhaps the most unexpectedly successful of 2007 was Robyn, the Swedish singer mainly remembered for her 1998 hit 'Show Me Love' (and even that arguably mostly because people were trying not get it mixed of with 'Show Me Love' by Robin S.) and had been absent from the UK chart for nearly a decade when 'With Every Heartbeat' was suddenly declared the hottest thing in the world. If I was reluctant to be carried away by the fuss surrounding that, or the underwhelming follow-up 'Handle Me', she turned out to have one more gem up her sleeve here; it had originally been a hit in her homeland as early as 2005.

Even so, it was a song it took me a while to like for some reason. Which is odd, because it's not an obviously uncommercial record: I think what's most unusual about it is the rather empty sound in the arrangement, when at times you can almost hear the empty space between the strings and the sythesisers. Gradually it dawned on me that this is actually a great strength, because it dramatically represents the emptiness the protagonist feels and refers to in the lyric. Despite the exclamation mark, the title isn't an imperative but the end of the sentence "You never were, and you never will be mine!" and that's just one of the neat little tricks she pulls here. Even the much-neglected art of the spoken section is successfully revived, and not even in her first language.

The bad news? She looks slightly too much like my granny in parts of the video.

Also appearing on: Now 68 (with Kleerup), 71 (with Christian Falk)
Available on: Robyn

Britney Spears 'Piece Of Me'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

I've never really believed in the concept of Guilty Pleasures, but this is about the closest that I come. Not because it's being sung by somebody who didn't write it, or is somehow not "real" music but because this entire album, released at the depths of her well-publicised problems, seems very like exploitation - and especially on this track, which seems to be cashing in to an almost offensive extent. Annoyingly though, it's one of the best records she's ever made, possibly because she has so little to do with it - in fact, her vocal is distorted almost beyond recognition in pursuit of a harsh, angular soundscape, as is the backing vocal by Robyn.

I wouldn't have paid money for this, especially not at the time, but I was sort of glad it fell into my lap. I couldn't watch the video though.

Also appearing on: 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 68, 70, 72, 73
Available on: Blackout