Something On My Dirty Mind

Robyn “Cry When You Get Older”

Let’s focus in on one small part of this song. This is what Robyn sings at the start of the second verse:

back in suburbia, kids get high and make out on the train

but in this, incomprehensible boredom takes a hold again

There’s a wonderful tension in these two lines. The words are vivid and specific, yet vague and universal. She could be talking about anyone anywhere, or calling back to your own memories, and it’s the same point either way. The language is clunky and not particularly musical, but the syllables fall into the rhythm in a way that catches the ear better than something with a more typical meter. This works almost entirely because Robyn is a compelling pop singer with a strong instinct for evocative phrasing. The chorus and bridge of “Cry When You Get Older” are smooth and sugary, and those parts function so intuitively that our attention is placed mainly on the verses, where the rhythm is trickier and her words are more complicated. She calls back to Prince in the first verse, which is appropriate because she’s definitely taking cues from his mid-80s work here. The best Prince songs all have great choruses and hooks, but the most memorable lyrics and bits of phrasing are usually in the verses. He makes you hang on his every word, and though a lot of that has to do with natural charisma, it’s also to do with keeping those parts dynamic and just slightly off from expectations. Robyn has a lot of charisma too, but this success mainly comes down to her high level of craft. A lot of pop songs wash over us without any particular focal points, but this is constructed in such a way that we can’t help but get snagged by one hook or another.

Pre-order it from Amazon.