Sexistential

Guess what? I listened to new music today! Robyn just released Sexistential, her first album since 2018’s masterpiece Honey. Crissy and I did a subscriber chat about it, which was super fun for many reasons, one of which was having an excuse to dive a little deeper and do some research. I’d never listened to or read an interview with Robyn before, and after reading her interview in The Cut and listening to her on the podcast Making the Album, I have a newfound respect. She is so wise and uplifting (I mean, look how exuberant she is on this album cover!).

In The Cut, Tinashe asked if she’s more inspired by pleasure or pain, and Robyn said: “I’m never inspired by pain. I think pain is so overrated, but I do think that finding my way out of pain into pleasure is very inspiring. So I respect pain, but I don’t look for it.” GOD BLESS. Love an artist who resists the tired notion that pain produces better art. You know who else rejected that idea (in his book Catching the Big Fish)? David Freaking Lynch.

My other fave part of The Cut interview was when Jerry Saltz (vom) asked Robyn about fear and the writing process. She said:

I just assume that fear is a part of the process. If you’re not allowing yourself to be afraid, then there’s a big chance you’ll miss things. And if I’m not scared, if I’m not uncomfortable or I don’t feel like I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, then I’m probably not doing it well enough.

But I’m obviously afraid of being pretentious. The first draft of a lyric for a song is so embarrassing, and it makes me want to kill myself when I read back my notes. That’s just the way it goes. You have to be really embarrassing for a while and then find people you’re okay with being embarrassing with. Sooner or later you’ll get to something less embarrassing.

Amen, sister. To quote another great: “Everything Is Embarrassing.” I’ve given Sexistential a few listens, but of the new tracks I love “Into the Sun.” Robyn sings “Look what I’ve done/So brave and dumb/Fly right into the sun” over a euphoric Max Martin bassline. I’m so glad she’s brave and dumb enough to fly right into the sun. The best artists are!

Here’s what else I’ve been listening to:

Cocteau Twins: Head Over Heels (1983)

Idk why it took me so long to do a full Cocteau Twins deep dive but better late than never I guess. Vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and guitarist Robin Guthrie, then a couple, wrote this whole album spontaneously in the studio, and it therefore sounds like a private romantic dreamworld—my fave type of world tbh.

Morrissey: Bona Drag (1990)

Morrissey loves a compilation almost as much as I love a cancelled artist! I have been listening to a lot of Morrissey and The Smiths since listening to Yasi’s excellent 2-part deep dive on Bandsplain. She reads a lot of excerpts from Morrissey’s autobiography, which I need to read because homeboy is so melodramatic and histrionic in the way that makes for the most compelling writing. There is a lot of it on this compilation as well.

The Smiths: Hatful of Hollow (1984)

More Morrissey, more compilation! (Can you tell I am severely over-caffeinated while writing this?) Yasi said on Bandsplain that she knows a lot of men with STILL ILL knuckle tattoos based on the song that appeared first on The Smiths’ debut and then on this compilation as the John Peel session. I don’t know any such men, but I have to say I respect them.

Morrissey: You Are The Quarry (2004)

I was reading this Pitchfork post about the music that shaped Chloë Sevigny (for reasons that will become clear in the next Sample Sluts) and she listed this one, which I’d never actually listened to. “All The Lazy Dykes” is a banger.