Recording information: Blacknuss Studio & Jinglebrother Studio, Stockholm.; Chateau Marie Studios, Los Angeles.; Rotwang Studios.
After her ambitious Body Talk project -- which began as a series of EPs before some of its tracks were collected on an album -- Robyn concentrated on short releases that allowed her to work with a wide range of collaborators and explore different aspects of her multifaceted sound. 2014's Do It Again found her reuniting with her old friends Ryksopp on a handful of sleek yet sugary electro-pop tracks, and for Love Is Free, she teams up with longtime keyboardist Markus Jgerstedt and producer Christian Falk as La Bagatelle Magique to delve into the sounds of '80s and '90s dance. The EP's title track is a driving house workout that captures the genre's heyday so well that it's hard to believe it's not a couple of decades older than it actually is, while "Got to Work It Out" gives the era's vocoder and filtered synths a slightly more modern twist. Robyn is almost always at her best when she has a strong melody to play off of, and Love Is Free's highlights -- "Lose Control," "Set Me Free," and the cover of Loose Joints' "Tell You (Today)" -- are no exception. While the EP is a little more straightforward than Do It Again, it's a fun, spontaneous portrait of a moment made all the more poignant due to Falk's death from pancreatic cancer in 2014. ~ Heather Phares
Professional Reviews
NME (Magazine) - "Sonically, Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique's take on `Tell You (Today)' has more pop pep than the original, but it retains its warm, analogue feel, as does the rest of the material on LOVE IS FREE."
Pitchfork (Website) - "A charming, un-slick outlier here is "Tell You (Today)", an eccentric, sample-heavy Loose Joints cover that mashes together instrumentals of the genre to dizzying effect."
