Honey
| Robyn
Honey
Honey is the eighth studio album by Swedish singer Robyn, and her first since Body Talk (2010). It was released on 26 October 2018 through Konichiwa and Interscope Records. It features the lead single "Missing U" and second single "Honey", a version of which originally featured in the final season of the HBO series Girls in 2017. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Pitchfork
Robyn presents her first solo album in eight years subtly, with slight builds and light hands. But her masterful command of emotions on the dancefloor slowly reveals itself across another enthralling record.
-
Consequence of Sound
No, it’s not a driving album, but it sure as hell is an album for walking around your city alone with headphones on or for cooking dinner and suddenly realizing you’ve got goosebumps and your fingers are trembling.
-
The Guardian
As evidence of a unique artist pursuing a personal vision in a world filled with the commonplace, however, Honey is perfect.
-
The Atlantic
The seductive, aching hook exists mainly to amplify a sense of anticipation. Again, Robyn writes rhythm-first, with the nearly rapped verses evoking a hot tumble of desire as the backdrop thumps neatly, coolly.
-
NME
On her first album in eight years, Swedish pop legend Robyn brings together jarring and disparate emotions, immortalising them in magical pop amber.
-
Resident Advisor
Throughout Honey, the pure, raw emotion that has always defined Robyn's music is still there. Now, she's just dancing to a different beat.
-
Variety
It’s a perfect sendoff to an album that’s both challenging and familiar, and a chorus she probably knew listeners would have echoing in their heads long after “Honey” ends. Let’s just hope it’s not echoing for another eight years …
-
SPIN
Robyn lets the textures and vibe of her beats do the talking. She’s living in the moment, engaging the mundanities that refocus her attention from the big heartbreaks toward the future, whatever its bumps. By letting go she’s gained perspective, and because of it, the moments to come will be sweeter, and stronger, than even the most rose-colored memories of the past.
-
The New Yorker
Robyn is a technician who communicates in hits. Her latest album, “Honey,” brings new textures, and a new softness, to her sound.
-
Loud And Quiet
Robyn pushes the dance-pop hybrid into exciting new territory. As ever, purists need not apply.
-
Slate
The long-anticipated new album may not have the sugar-rush highs we want, but its healing powers are what we need.
-
Drowned in Sound
Honey is a fine record, a consistent record and a thoroughly enjoyable record. But it is not a great record, and in comparison with the standard she has set for herself previously, this is a mild (though fleeting) disappointment.
-
PopMatters
There is nothing left to be said: Robyn's Honey is the lead contender for best pop album of 2018.
-
Earmilk
The success of this comeback is rare, something that we can only hope for artists re-entering their creative craft. For Robyn, an admittedly private person in her daily life, Honey is an example of how she's been able to share her journey. It is a testament to how she has been able to build and maintain a fervent, bourgeoning fanbase even through major gaps between releases.
-
Independent
The singer delivers a series of hard truths with a voice that sifts over the synths like icing sugar.
-
USA Today
But when you remember that Robyn – like our "Star is Born" protagonist Ally – got her start as a heavily manufactured young pop star, it's clear that "Honey" is the kind of album she has strived her whole life to be able to release, an honest manifestation of her artistry that's uniquely and purely hers.
-
Refinery29
Honey slides down as a tonic for all that ails you. Politics? Love? A diminishing sense of humanity and dark fears as we creep into an apocalyptic future thanks to climate change and never-ending wars? Set them aside and sway in the club for a minute, but Robyn won’t ever let you forget to feel or cherish your humanity.
-
The Young Folks
Honey still contains the sense of warmth and openness that Robyn’s earlier work, but with the influence of experimental electronics, dance and disco. She was able to craft a record that is not only personal but emotionally and tonally different of any album to come in her discography previously.
-
Hotpress
Honey may not dominate the charts this year, or next. But just as ‘Dancing On My Own’ inspired records like Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion, it’s not fanciful to think that what we hear here could dominate in 2022.
-
The Straits Times
While her worldwide commercial hits are scarce, Honey entrenches her reputation for crafting pop tunes that you get all emotional over whether you are on your own or on the dance floor.
-
NPR Music
In a way, it seems like she ended up crafting a perfect foil to psychoanalysis: an album for moving your body with your head on straight.
-
Exclaim!
Repeated listens reveal a deeply nuanced record that deals with grief and confusion the only way Robyn knows how — by dancing like nobody's looking. As always, the club remains an inspiration, but here the focus is to soundtrack the night's comedown, not its ecstatic peak. The grooves are a bit deeper, the emotions remain true and, as the title suggests, the tracks are sticky as hell, stuck rattling around in your head for days.
-
Irish Examiner
Honey is likely to feature prominently in the countdown of year’s best albums and is undoubtedly deserving of the accommodate. What it isn’t is the reinvention of pop that Robyn’s cheerleaders have touted it as. Approached with slightly grounded expectations and it will prove a revelation.
-
Highsnobiety
On occasion, feels so in touch with humanity rather than the sugary fantasy of mundane pop that it borders on feeling surreal; like it’s managed to coax its way into your veins.
-
Stereogum
Honey a deeply mature album, and it represents a musician that’s been radically transformed by loss. Robyn has gone through many permutations over the years, and Honey feels like her most considered. It represents the organic, the humanoid in place of the robotic. It took eight years of hard times, and as a result Honey is all flesh and blood — that of hearts pumping and racing and eventually stopping altogether.
-
MUU Muse
Robyn’s too important, too influential, and too ahead of the curve to disparage for making a record with some breathing room for experimentation. She’ll only continue to do things differently – and only her way, always.
-
ABC
It should be clear by now that Honey is a masterful collection of pop songs. So, if you baulk at pop music, you probably won’t enjoy this record. That’s okay.
-
Music OMH
Robyn’s music has always, in a strange way, been reminiscent of Matisse’s collages. It’s about clean lines, geometric beauty and clear sincerity. But it also has depth, richness and luxurious colour. It can be taken as superficially perfect pop music, or you can listen a little deeper and hear just how intricately woven her heartbreak anthems really are. She is an artist in the truest sense. And Honey is her latest masterpiece.
-
NZ Herald
Honey is a welcome return from Robyn. It's fun, sexy and danceable – but underscored by its devotion to treating each emotion with respect, and honouring the painful journeys love can take us on.
-
Sputnik Music
I don't love this album as much as I do Body Talk, and it's probably not going to be one of my Top Ten LP's of 2018. But it's still a damned fine album, and it won't miss my Top Ten list by much. Robyn continues to interest me as an artist. I'd recommend Honey to anyone who finds themselves drawn to slow, electronic dance pop music.
-
KRUI.fm
This album is definitely one to sit with and come back to time and time again, as Robyn has crafted a body of work which unfolds after multiple listens. Don’t skip it simply because there are less hooks than a typical Robyn album, as this is as rewarding.
-
Albumism
Overall, Honey is a fantastic album. Each track is thoughtful, produced to perfection. It’s simple to listen to, as either danceable background music, or turned up to an appropriately reverent decible. Robyn proves that even after taking a few years off, she is a true standout in a crowded dance pop scene, still setting the tone after all these years.
-
Billboard
If the last 20 years have proven anything, it’s that she’s not afraid of detours and reinventions. I just hope we don’t have to wait another 8 years for a nine-track album.
-
Uproxx
Robyn learned of pop music’s transfigurative power early. Lucky for us, she’s still practicing it.
-
ACRN
Robyn is sure to continue to surprise us with powerful, catchy songs that make us want to simultaneously cry and bust a move.
-
Vulture
Honey might not be syrupy in its arrangements, but it still lives up to the name: like bees processing pollen and nectar, Robyn makes coarse, painful elements seem enticing and even sweet.
-
The Southern Sounding
And if “Honey” doesn’t quite hit the magnificence of “Body Talk,” that’s only because her previous record was such a monumental leap forward for the genre. “Honey” is easily one of the best records of the year, finding new ways to express heartache, love and lust within the confines of pop music’s ever-shifting atmospheres.
-
Vulture Hound
As Robyn enters her forties, her prowess remains unrivaled, save for a few exceptional individuals. It takes something special to come back after a long absence and deliver at the first attempt, but she is that in every sense.
-
Paste Magazine
Honey is a near-flawless dance pop album. It doesn’t need political or cultural commentary to assert relevancy; in Robyn’s deep understanding of human emotion and what moves us, Honey feels dire all the same. Release through dance has long been a tactic wielded by humankind, but rarely has it felt this inclusive, kind and positively radiant.
-
The Line of Best Fit
On first listen, the absence of a nihilistic mantra to grasp onto may disappoint fans, but the deceptively simple pleasures of Honey open up with each listen. Robyn is trusting her instincts; finding care and wonder in the spaces she once went for punishment. Listening to Robyn’s music is itself a heartbreak survival strategy for so many of us: we’ll always need the hurt of Body Talk, but the soft liberation of Honey could sustain us — and Robyn — for longer.
-
Vada Magazine
There is no doubting that Honey is a very personal record from an artist that has gradually and notably refused to comprise in an industry that seemingly embraces individuality and creativity, but only up to a point. Robyn is taking bigger risks and for her fans this may make for occasional disappointment, but her enduring curiosity, love and gentle subversion of music is never once in doubt.
-
Golden Plec
By the end of ‘Honey’, several things are evident: the album stands as a product of authenticity and pursuit of creative vision. Robyn is an artist that has refused to compromise herself and her vision for the sake of what is expected of her, especially from her fans. In an industry where artists are encouraged to chase trends and styles, this is highly refreshing.
-
Newsday
The mood of “Honey” pivots in the title track, as if it’s the moment when Robyn allows herself to be happy again. That's only fitting considering how much joy “Honey” will bring to the world as one of the year’s best albums.
-
The Irish Times
A suite of sad electro-pop gems.
-
North Texas Daily
All nine songs are influenced by ’90s house music, but a few are sprinkled with some R&B and ’70s disco. A nine-song album is rare these days, but “Honey” felt complete despite its short length. Robyn delivered 40 minutes of music that will feel familiar yet exciting to fans of her triumphant electro-pop.
-
Brig Newspaper
Honey is an album that should be listened to on your everyday commute, giving you the perfect soundtrack to strut down the aisle of your local supermarket or to be blasted out loud during festival season. I’ll be sure to keep it on repeat.
-
Redbrick
The return of Robyn sees the dance pop virtuoso revitalised on all fronts and enthused by the abandonment of heartbreak.
-
The Muse
oney might not be a collection of strobe-lit electronica designed to lift your spirits, but its slow and steady comforts are a sweet salve.
-
The Diamondback
Honey is for sure an album worth listening to at least once. Robyn is able to convey a lot of subtle emotion over the course of only nine songs, most of which blend together enough to make the song titles forgettable. However, whether she’s able to make her listener feel those same emotions is up for debate.
-
Daily Mail
The minute you settle down with her hypnotic, melodic and tender new album Honey, you know that, at 39, Swedish pop star Robyn's still got it.
-
All Music
Robyn continues to make the trends instead of following them, and with Honey, she enters her forties with some of her most emotionally satisfying and musically innovative music.
-
Your EDM
Like a fine wine, Robyn’s voice seems to only get better with time. It’s timeless, graceful, and Honey reveals her most mature and cohesive release to date. Across the board, the return of Robyn is getting rave reviews.
-
Slant Magazine
Honey feels raw and incomplete, like a work in progress—and maybe that’s the point. Robyn reportedly fiddled with multiple versions of “Honey” before settling on the sublime mix found here; Body Talk was initially conceived as a series of EPs; and 2005’s Robyn was released, repackaged, and re-recorded several times over the course of three years. For Robyn, making music is an ongoing exercise in expression, and when heartbreak threatened to silence her, she apparently let the songs do the talking. And the healing.
-
The Music
Even at her darkest, there is the most joyous, deliriously euphoric vibe about this album.
-
Diandra Reviews It All
Honey is like an Electro Vogue; fashioning and sashaying away every gripe and grudge you clutch that makes you hold back your heart. Hence, Robyn is the Queen of Dance Pop because she sees this world is all about love.
-
The Student Playlist
Robyn is back, at long last, breathing fresh air into pop music with her first album in eight years, and ‘Honey’ only shows how much her presence was needed.
-
DIY Mag
It finds its peace in a quieter, more open space.
-
positivelyunderground
Her work remains youthful and vital, able to address simple topics with mature depth and also leaving time to escape formula and dance the problems away. Honey is another testament to her time-tested brilliance.
-
Earbuddy
Honey could be just another simple dance pop album in anyone else's hands, but Robyn makes it special.
-
A Bit of Pop Music
Robyn truly outdid herself with a pop album that is so much more than just that. Listening Honey is an ethereal experience from start to finish. I would almost say it was worth the eight year wait!
-
iNews
An impeccably crafted return for the popstars’ popstar.
-
GQ
I wish I’d had it before today. It should be prescribed listening for anyone who ever has to come out. It’s probably the best album of the year, in a year of exquisite queer art made by openly queer artists, but I don’t think anyone would mind: they probably felt all the same things I did the moment they put it on.
-
Magnetic Magazine
The queen is back with as complete a pop album as you will hear this year.
-
First Post
In this case, the Swedish singer giving her listeners exactly what they ask for while serving as a personal evolution. No mean feat for a musician who’s been making music for over 20 years.
-
Washington Blade
As an album, “Honey” is more interested in individuals rather than society as a whole. But at the same time, there’s something deeply comforting about her sound. It’s mellow and full of life, pulsating and reflective at the same time. And, of course, sexy. Very sexy.
-
The Nation
Honey, the Swedish artist’s first solo album in eight years, is a triumph of cerebral pop music.
-
Northern Transmissions
With every little organic fill, she gets you more excited until you’re overtaken by the final big drops to take the album out with endless hope and excitement.
-
Noisey
Eight years since ‘Body Talk,’ Robyn returns with a tender, unexpected album.
-
High Clouds
From the offbeat experimentation of “Beach2k20” to the straightforwardness of lead singles “Missing You” and “Honey”, every single song here is special and memorable in its own way.
-
The Skinny
Robyn's eighth album, and her first in as many years, can capture a single heartbeat – one breathless second – and spin it into perfect, complex pop treasure.
-
Into More
Honey is a consistent album that might be a bit too boring for some after the thrill ride that was Body Talk, but Honey will also beg relistening, probably on a night when an old flame comes back into your life, or a new one is floating away. Like Sweetener and other melodic albums before it, some might ask, “Where are the bops?” but Robyn doesn’t need bops to get her point across, which she does very well.
-
Daily UW
It’s among 2018’s best albums and is a rousing next chapter in Robyn’s varied, illustrious career.
-
Digital Journal
There is a delicacy and subtlety to this musical effort that is emotional and optimistic at the same time. It is a true work of musical art, and she displays a great deal of personal strength and triumph. Most importantly, she allows the music to speak for itself. Honey is perhaps one of the best albums by a female recording artist in 2018
-
The Times
The Swedish wunderkind combines the unashamedly commercial with the weird and characterful in a new way.
-
Chicago Tribune
Though the album is less immediate than “Body Talk,” the choruses not as insistent, it exudes a hypnotic pull nonetheless: this is a gentler brand of body music about absence and need. Though there’s a disco pulse anchoring “Missing U,” the airy spaciousness created by a matrix of hovering, undulating keyboards and the ache in Robyn’s voice suggest emptiness. Love’s a phantom.
-
The Arts Desk
It's all there: pain, loss, alienation and rejuvenation. A gorgeous album from an exceptional artist.
-
Treble Zine
She’s long stood out as a thinking person’s pop star, but the slow burn of Honey aligns Robyn with a spectrum of artists—Mitski, PJ Harvey, the Janet Jackson of Control and Rhythm Nation—whose concepts famously hint at rage and despair but also accept joy and defiance.
-
Knox News
Robyn has always been a maverick, but she has never before sounded this liberated and self-assured.
-
Album Confessions
Honey is ultimately a project by an artist with a new outlook on unfortunate circumstances, a sharper sense of understanding that naturally comes with a few years of growth and maturity. While previous pop projects may have been a way to cope with negative feelings, hiding the complete story, the new effort is very straightforward when it comes to highlighting emotion and desires.
-
The Courier Online
Honey overall has a very good flow to it. Most of the songs work on their own but sound even better together in the chosen order. Robyn gave us a version of herself that is softer, more sensual and addictive, just like honey. But fear not, you’re still going to dance. A lot actually.
-
Clash Music
Turning bittersweet memories into utter pop perfection...
-
Spectrum Pulse
In terms of the music, it just doesn't grab me as deeply - again, very tasteful, very easy music to like but I wouldn't say I love it, netting a light 7/10 from me and a recommendation, but a qualified one. And it's weird that I can look to Robyn's descendants in this brand of synthpop like Carly Rae Jepsen or especially Shura and find more that grips me in terms of writing and hooks, but hey, if this is the direction Robyn wants to go, all the power to her - it's still good music, and was still mostly worth the wait.
-
Thomas Bleach
Luckily this album was only 9 tracks long because the forgettable moments don’t seem to drag out and are perfectly space between the highlights. It may not be the comeback you wanted but it’s an alright affair of 80’s synth nostalgia that will have you bopping along.
-
The Ringer
For more than 20 years, the Swedish pop iconoclast has been charting new ground and standing alone. On her new album, ‘Honey,’ she’s as independent—and brilliant—as ever.
-
Telegraph
Sweetness that comes from strength.
-
Classic Pop Mag
With its sometimes monotonous delivery, the deceptive simplicity of the title track and Between The Lines – founded on a solitary, pulsing note – further underline the album’s streamlined nature; then there’s the shimmering, oddly and likeably shapeless Send To Robyn Immediately. But if Honey’s short on celebration, it’s far from gloomy: especially defiant closer Ever Again.
-
N.Y. Post
It’s instantly one of the best LPs of 2018.
-
Recommended Listen
She absorbs so much optimism throughout the listen before it eventually bursts apart into a daft EDM drop that covers the room with sparkle, Though we know none of us are ever truly in the clear with whatever pain life may bring our way, Robyn reminds us that there’s a way back to the sweet stuff on Honey.
-
Stack
The hallmark of Robyn’s songwriting is evoking a moment trapped in time, a perfect capsule of place and feeling. Eight years on and the same struggles feel eternal, and divine.
-
Financial Times
The singing is smooth yet emotive. Meanwhile the music palliates the difficult emotional content with a silky sound — too much so on the Ibiza chillout blandishments of “Beach 2k20”, the only mis-step in a low-key but impressive return to action.
-
Time
On Honey, she’s reaching out in the dark, trying to make a connection, in songs that are atmospheric and full of white space, instead of dense with glittering synths. Her lyrics are plaintive and straightforward.
-
Standard
It’s not an album of pop hits. It sounds like she’s outgrown the charts and gone somewhere even more appealing.
-
The New York Times
After enduring an emotional crash, a breakup and the death of a mentor, the Swedish star has her first album in eight years and the most transcendent song of her career.
-
Brooklyn Vegan
It’s one of the most experimental albums Robyn has ever made (if not the most experimental album), and it’s very cool to hear her making music like this after such a long career. It’s not always easy to age well in the ever-changing world of mainstream pop music, but Robyn sure does make it look easy.
-
c-ville
Eight years after Body Talk, the Swedish dance-pop star’s new album doesn’t so much represent a shift in direction as a deceleration.
-
ohnotheydidnt
Robyn’s music is like an intense molly peak: it could leave you either dancing or crying. Her new album Honey, though danceable, delves more into the melancholy.
-
Nest HQ
She does hit those high highs in the way only she can, but the introspective, more stripped-back lows on the album even out the overall experience.
-
Cavalier Daily
The singer makes an introspective return to pop.
-
The Musical Hype
So, there’s plenty to like about “Honey,” but there are also flaws. The biggest skepticism I have is that Robyn, and the production don’t have enough ‘variation’ to make this sound more distinct… It’s respectable mind you, but it gets a bit boring and forgettable.
-
The Aggie
Swedish pop star makes cathartic, profound return.
-
Michigan Daily
Perhaps, though, the greatest achievement of this album is that it exists at all, and still sounds so essentially Robyn. No one else could have made this album, and despite her reboot, despite the trauma, despite the eight-year hiatus, with her newfound realizations, new software and an added calm, the absolute joy is that Robyn is — after everything — still dancing on her own.
-
Aus Pop
Overall I am really impressed with this album. It’s not as bold and brash as I would have liked, but there is a cool throwback vibe to where it all started for Robyn, particularly in the latter stages of the album.
-
The World News
The Swedish dance revolutionary's new record glows with bittersweet sensuality.
-
Audioxide
From the lush, low-key title track to the gentle pleading of “Baby Forgive Me”, Honey delights in a downtempo sensuality. It finds voice in not being larger than life, delving instead into the deeply personal.
-
Njus
The singer delivers a series of hard truths with a voice that sifts over the synths like icing sugar.
-
The Fader
Also worth noting is that the record's tracklist is ordered chronologically; an organic ebb and flow of love, loss and everything in between, glossed up with that uniquely Robyn magic.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments