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This wouldn't necessarily be a huge problem, there's a lot of dance songs to which the lyrics make basically no sense or at least are deeply ambiguous ('Southern Sun' by Paul Oakenfold, in particular, springs to mind and I really like that song) except rather than being beautifully metaphorical, these are kind of direct. In fact, it's hard to think of a more direct verse than:

"Thugs and bad men, punks and lifers
Locked up interns, pigs and snitches"

...aside from the fact that obviously that isn't even a complete sentence. GOD. Popstars these days, etc. Even so, it's not exactly mincing its words. Robyn's voice is a threat, a call and it's difficult to work out what she's about to say after that little lot, until she actually does it. Meanwhile, you've had time to get distracted by the racially dubious semiotics of the video:

I assume I was meant to think that man couldn't possibly be a policeman because he's black, despite the fact he was wearing riot gear and dog tags. Awkward. Very, very awkward.

The song, though, is busy being weird of its own accord. The lyrics, as you may have noticed, continue from the list of marginalised and criminalised members of society into the rather novel idea that "all is well."

...Now, I'll admit I have a politics degree so I may not be approaching this from the party perspecitive, but WHAT? WHAT?! That's an offensively stupid idea. Unless this is meant to be some kind of spell whereby the entire of society, miscreants and outcasts included, is completely transformed then again I say what?

I mean it may be all very well for pop stars and reviewers and those not at the very edges of the population and it might be a very nice idea to say "dream on, have hope" but if I was a prostitute about to be knocked senseless in a gutter then I think I might possibly think that was a little bit patronising and not necessarily addressing the real issues here. Which means the song isn't speaking to the people its supposedly addressing, which means it's actually further adding to marginalisation, which means... oh God, what the hell does this all mean?

Not to mention that quite a lot of the people listed in the song are, well, 'baddies.' Is it really going to make it any more secure for the junkies in the third verse if the thugs from the first aren't strip-searched? This all just makes no sense.

It's a shame, since this is such a pretty song, at its heart and the chorus is very catchy but I definitely can't detach my brain from the problem of the lyrics and the video's slightly disturbing implications. If it was worded differently or about almost anything else, this would probably get at least four or five stars but I can't really let it go as it is.

Download: Out now
CD Released: November 17th

(Hazel Robinson)