The thing is, we all love Robyn: sad little disco robot Robyn with her wonky teeth and interesting hairdos unlucky-in-love Robyn and her winsome hopes for true happiness. But there's more to the lyrics than the first few hundred listens might let on. "The lights go on, the music dies, but you don't see me standing here." And then, the killer blow: "I just came to say goodbye."īut is that all there is to Dancing On My Own? Well, not quite – the Rex the Dog and Fred Falke mixes both took the electro-pop production in enjoyable new directions. "So far away, but still so near," Robyn sighs as the beats drop away. In fact, as the song unfolds things get even worse with a middle eight that offers the perfect vignette of a bad night ending badly. By contrast, despite its danceable BPM, Dancing On My Own is relentlessly downbeat, offering no hope that things may get better. There are echoes here of 2005's Be Mine!, with glance-at-the-ex lyrics that rivalled Abba's Angeleyes: "I saw you at the station/ You had your arm around what's her name/ She had on that scarf I gave you." Then in 2007 Robyn became the poster girl for emotronic pop misery via surprise No 1 With Every Heartbeat.Īt least With Every Heartbeat was grimly optimistic. Robyn is, of course, no stranger to this territory. Dancing On My Own is the irresistible sound of heartbreak on the dancefloor, desolate solitude in a room of euphoric revellers. With its air of subdued defiance Dancing On My Own seems like the perfect anthem for crap nights out and a classic example of what Neil Tennant (who knows a thing or two about this area of pop tuneage) refers to as "tears in the toilets" material. "I'm right over here, why can't you see me? I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home." As nights out go, it's a bit light on fun: "I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her," Robyn sings. In Dancing On My Own, Robyn is not at The Club with a party-hard crew hell-bent on a night of booty and bodyshots she is alone, drawn to the dancefloor by the masochistic need to see her ex with his new flame. Robyn's own contribution to this genre was the odd one out – and it was a complete triumph. Beats dropped, shawtys pumped on dancefloors and "the VIP" was definitely a jolly place to be.Ĭlub-based inanities became the top 10's new obsession but these songs, purchased by millions of schoolchildren too young to have even considered ordering fake IDs, were club tracks for people who have never been clubbing – bold, grotesque caricatures of a lowest common denominator nightlife that doesn't exist in the real world.
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It was The Club where Will.I.Am messed with the baddest chicks, and where the DJ kept Kelly Rowland safe – who, lest we forget, was partying ''till hella late". For JLS, The Club was alive with the sound of music, while Flo Rida noted that The Club could not even handle him. In 2010, the singles chart got officially up in The Club.