I Only Do It 4 a Worthy Cause

It’s only a year or two old, but I can’t imagine life without Robyn’s “Be Mine.” When I hear it once I want to hear it again. And then again. At one point a few months ago I listened to it on the iPod, like, 12 times in a row, extending my walk home to ridiculous lengths, lapping the block around the library branch over & over.

That was the dance version, and if I had thought about it at the time, I probably would have assumed that the song’s appeal was 99% thanks to the track’s electro-bop-bop arrangement. But actually the arrangement is pretty unobtrusive. Thanks to Eric for recently setting me straight by mentioning the “ballad version.”

• Robyn, “Be Mine” (ballad version)

I’m usually pretty aloof to torch songs, but this one warms my stony heart. The sparse piano chords at the outset utterly convince you that this is serious stuff going on, even if the words might sound like simple teenage bullshit. And as much as I loved the original version, I think I’d underestimated both the durable genius of the song and the Swedish diva’s vocal skills; her singing here is underplayed but really sells the heartbreak. (Anyway, teenage bullshit never really goes away, does it? It just recurs & gets more complicated, like a wiggling, subdividing fractal.)

The remake is on The Rakamonie EP (buy here), which also includes an icy-sharp cover of the Teddybears’ “Cobrastyle” (known to most people as That Dang-Diggy-Diggy Song in the Heineken Commercial). Not to mention a hilarious piano-only take on Prince’s “Jack U Off” that sounds like it’s being performed in some Klondike saloon circa 1890. Oh, all right:

• Robyn, "Jack U Off"

I tell you, little odds & ends EPs like this are some of my favourite things; the Fiery Furnaces’ EP, f’rinstance, is the only thing of theirs I ever listen to anymore.