Robyn: 'Body Talk, Pt.1'

Her first collection of new material in half a decade begins with a confession - "My drinking is killing me" - looped over a minimal electronic throb and ends with a dreamlike take on a traditional Swedish folk song called 'Jag Vert En Dejlig Rosa'. But really, should we be that taken aback? Robyn Miriam Carlsson has always been a popstar apart, ditching the major label system in favour of setting up her own imprint in her kitchen, posing as a bespectacled bumblebee years before GaGa began to hog pop's dressing up box, and now embarking on an ambitious plan to release no fewer than three albums this year.

In between its mismatched bookends, album number one houses a succession of interesting, infectious and inventive pop songs. 'Fembots' glides effortlessly between buzzing verses and candied choruses, current single 'Dancing On My Own' is so sad and brilliant it could threaten even the stiffest of British upper lips, and 'Cry When You Get Older' has a chorus to swoon for. Then? Then comes the 'tude. "I came to dance not to socialise," Robyn warns on a crisp electro/calypso bunk-up called 'Dancehall Queen', before proceeding to prove that it is indeed possible for a 29-year-old theatre director's daughter from Stockholm to pull off a cod-Caribbean accent. She's so pleased with her efforts, in fact, that she uses it again on 'None Of Dem', five minutes of menacing, blippy electronica on which she matches Royksopp's spiky beats with a series of sneering put-downs. "None of these boys can dance," she observes aloofly, "Not a single one of them stands a chance."

Cocky? Sure, but she can do tender too, extolling the virtues of friendship and mutual support on a completely lovely strings and piano ballad called 'Hang With Me'. That and the album's folky closer are a welcome reminder that, whatever else she may be, Robyn is also an utterly compelling pop vocalist - not that your attention is ever likely to waiver over the album's eight tracks and 30-minute running time. Of course, it's difficult not to wish there was a bit more of Body Talk, but comfort is provided by the knowledge that Part II is due in September. A duet with Snoop Dogg has already been confirmed. A death metal-cum-disco cover of 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose'? Let's not give her any ideas.