You looked happy, and that's great...I just miss you, that's all

Yes, I realize this is going to seem like bandwagon jumping, that this can't really make that much of a difference, that lots of people already have this song, that I can't possibly write about this artist with as much depth of feeling as other blogs have. I don't care. I wouldn't feel right if the week passed without me making at least one plea for people to go out and buy Robyn's stunning song "With Every Heartbeat." You can buy it from 7Digital wherever you live, even if you don't live in the U.K. It's in the running to be number one on the singles chart this weekend, but it's close. So close. And it would mean so much for so many reasons if she got that number one slot: mean a lot for pop, for artists brave enough to forsake the major label route (and still stay pop!), for an amazing artist who deserves all the success in the world. Robyn is Swedish and chances are even if you've never heard of "With Every Heartbeat" (which I admit might have been difficult to avoid hearing about, given the blog clamor about it), you'll at least know her from her late '90's song "Show Me Love" ("show me love, show me life, baby show me what it's all about" may ring a bell). She's done a lot more than her debut album Robyn Is Here, though, releasing My Truth, Don't Stop The Music, and, most recently, the much raved about Robyn, all well as penning songs released by other artists (including Darin's hit "Money For Nothing"). Now, she's relaunching herself in the U.K. She's already achieved a lot, with her collaboration with Kleerup entering the charts at #5 on downloads alone last week, but, as I said, it would be amazing if she went to #1 this week...so, if you have £0.50 (about $1.01), please, please, please buy "With Every Heartbeat" from here before Sunday. It's a fantastic song, really, it is, and, as an indication of why she's an artist completely worth supporting, I'm temporarily posting another song of hers.

Be Mine!--this song deserves to conquer the world, to sit atop every chart, to be played on radios across the continents. Instantly attention-grabbing with those strings and tinged with sadness throughout (and oh, those opening lines and spoken middle 8!), it's hooky and sophisticated and poppy and meaningful and instant all at the same time, a rare and precious combination. This song is quality, but, in contrast to so many songs that are held up as pinnacles of musical success, it does what the best of pop should do by being eminently listenable, by being exactly the sort of thing you can imagine someone hearing on the radio and being instantly drawn to, wanting to listen to repeatedly, that can reach everyone. It's not stuck up in itself. You could listen to it repeatedly, picking up nuances and new levels of emotion each time, but you don't have to do that to appreciate it, to get its appeal--you'll love it from listen one.

The album from which "Be Mine!" comes, Robyn, is very much worth picking up (if you don't have anything yet, probably the best thing to do is pick up the UK re-edition and then use a digital download store to pick up the older versions of the couple of tracks that have been changed, "Bum Like You" and "Robotboy"), but please, please, please buy "With Every Heartbeat" if you can (you can listen to it on her MySpace)--you can buy it from here (physical) or here (digital) even if you don't live in the U.K.

Next up: another female Swedish singer, I think.

(By the way, this cute picture comes from her appearance yesterday on Radio 1's Live Lounge, where she covered "Since U Been Gone"--Samuel, former runner of the HotStuff Files, has posted it over at Electroqueer [well, I'm guessing based on writing style that it's him--if it's not, sorry!] and Discopop Directory has it and her performance of "With Every Hearbeat" as well.)