Robyn Is Here by Robyn (CD, Jun-1997, RCA)

I first heard Robyn's "What it Takes" on an R&B station in Houston and thought it tough and ambitious. When I heard it's follow up "Show me Love" I simply had to have the album. I went to a record store and my jaw dropped when I saw the cover of the Robyn is Here album. Staring at me was a skinny teenaged girl with a shock of blonde hair covering half her face. There MUST have been some mistake. I told the clerk I was looking for the R&B artist Robyn and was directed to a listening station where I got confirmation that the teenager on the album cover was indeed Robyn. Immediately I bought the album and was not disappointed by a single track
A year earlier the end result of then 16 year old Robin Miriam Carlsson had been released in Europe and took the continent by storm. While only a high school student at the time the album was recorded Robyn's voice conveys experience well beyond her years. To be frank the voice sounds less like a 16 year old Swede from Stockholm and more like a 50 year old, divorced, black woman from the midwest on her way home from choir practice.
Robyn's vocal rifts don't come across as someone from one of the most homogenous countries on earth presenting a watered down version of R&B lyrics and Hip Hop like beats. It is a bona fide R&B album done by an aficionado with an affinity and towering respect for her art form. While there are odd tracks that sound as if they WERE in fact written by a 16 year old such as the "ring around the roses" reminiscent "Do You Really Want Me?" The bulk of the album is an ambitious piece in which the artist pours herself into each track and seems to be having the time of her life in the process as is evident on tracks such as "You've got that Something" and "Bumpy Ride."
None of the material comes across as "filler" as did the work of the first albums of her contemporaries Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. This album is not a teenaged girl attempting to appeal to fellow teeny boppers. It is an appeal to serious music fans and puts them on notice that there is much more to Swedish music than Abba, Neneh Cherry and Ace of Base. Robyn is here and we should take note.

I absolutely love this album. I remember listening to it over and over when it first came out in 1997, I was ten years old at the time and it was just a phase. But I heard a clip recently and was like 'wow, I haven't heard that in a while.' I ended up looking for the cd, cause I knew I had it still but I didn't find it. I guess, at some point I let someone barrow it and just never got it back. So I looked online for it and found the best price was on ebay, so I bought it right away. It's still a great album and brings back a lot of memeories for me and you'd probably love it too!

Very good emotional voice. My favorite is "Show me Respect" Deep song with
some Hart & Soul. Its actually real music, very unlike today's Lip sinking drama queens.

This was a true dance, feel good Cd. One of my favs of all time. Received tremedous airplay here in the States, but her later albums were only released overseas.

Great Swedish singer/sensation with harmonious soulful sounds and great sexiness to her music. I would recommend either buying this CD or seeing one of her shows.