Robyn — Honey ANALYSIS & REVIEW
Published 11/01/2018
It’s got some pep in its step, that’s for sure. It’s too bad that the energy and mood weren’t driving forces in every layer all the way through. This album is nicely reminiscent of the feel-good, thin textured synth dominant pop of a previous generation. Sonically, this album succeeded in providing a basic level of fun through small quirkiness of light, arpeggiating, familiar synth tones, which then pulls the listener in to experience a potentially deeper emotion with broader experiments in sharp texture shifts, new instrumental roles in percussion and bass, and added synth layers by the end. This album is a rather good example of combining familiar and pleasant sound qualities of the past with the large emphasis in timbral experimentation of the present. In the end, it landed in a rather soft middle — the sonic atmosphere was congenial and funky enough to be a more pleasant listen than most every modern pop star’s output, however it lacked consistency in organizing the music around this basic goal and didn’t have any massive breakthroughs in said experiments to be a fully engaging work.
Perhaps even more so than the semi-nostalgic timbre, what separates this album from any given modern pop album today is the fearlessness in melodic shape and exposure within the texture. In an age where many artists seem to grasp onto the first three-note motive that comes to mind, these songs had melodies that were noticeably crafted with time and care. It’s the first step to creating a decent work of music within these rather minimal and upbeat structures, and it was an alright success. The two bookends of the album, “Missing U” and “Ever Again”, were especially good examples of dancing through the underlying harmonies using multiple chord tones and including important rises and falls in pitch that matched well with the meter.
Still, as nice as is was to hear such emphasis on the melodic material, there were several times in which the melody lost a feeling of directional purpose or moving to any high points, as some songs, like “Human Being” and “Baby Forgive Me,” had an emphatic vocal line that moved slower than everything else, took many breaks, and had no momentum or aim in its motion. It wasn’t a terrible misstep, though, given that the lines were still mostly pleasant and meshing well with the soft sonorities.
The album’s downfall is the lack of conviction or important role in the harmonic progressions. While not at all annoying or distracting, the chosen harmonies rarely provided any additional sense of depth or emotional pull. Luckily, the melodies were very independent and at the center of attention, so the music was still able to find some catchy moments and stand out phrases. There was little help from the underlying chords, though, which were almost always slow enough in change to lose a sense of togetherness, but active enough to lose a possible grounded and atmospheric touch.
Unsurprisingly, the language itself was mostly made up of I, IV, V, and vi, with the vi chord especially having an overused feel of being the only minor tonality in the rotation. As the album progressed, the harmonies thankfully got a little more room to dictate feeling and setting, which ended up working well with the simple language paired with fun and unique beat presentation. And, like I said, it was never obnoxious. At least the most boring aspect of the music was also the least consequential. The album itself may not be terribly consequential in the grand scope of things, but it’s worth pointing out how the seasoned veteran succeeds where the young bucks fail, and Robyn still rightfully has a strong fanbase because of it.
