No, you’re not gonna get what you need.
But baby, I have what you want.
Come get your honey.
Robyn released Honey, her 8th album, on 26 October 2018, 8 long years after her previous solo effort Body Talk (let’s not forget she did not completely disapeared for 8 years and released EPs with Röyksopp and her band La Bagatelle Magique).
Robyn has talked at length about why she needed a break, taking the time to deal with breakup and grief (in an interview with Vice Magazine she develops on these themes and give more background information on the making of honey – worth reading.). In true Robyn style, she came back with an unexpected move: Honey is a departure from her previous sound, there’s less room for club bangers and more space for electronic mid-tempo. It’s more reflective, maybe less empowering than With Every Heartbeat or Dancing on My Own, but equally as good.
On the album cover picture (orginal picture by Heji Shin), Robyn is lying on a bed, you can only see the upper part of her body, she is looking directly at us, but you can’t really tell what she is thinking. Her pose reminds me of the way she danced in the Call Your Girlfriend video: it is vaguely sexual, but not in an aggressive and explicit way. It’s more of a sensual pose, an invitation to taste her honey – whatevere the honey actually is, the song lyrics don’t make it completely explicit, we only know it’s good for us.
The Instagram account of Lane and Associates, creative directors on Honey, gives a few snapshots of the making of the album cover. You can see Robyn wearing an intricate bra, rolling in bed, bathing in red light. Lane and Assoc. website features the whole suite of images they produced for Honey, it’s very interesting to see how they applied a similar look and feel to other images of the same campaign.
That red light is a promoinant fearure of the album artwork. Half of the picture is taken by this bright red background. It’s very intense and energetic. It gives the picture a very different feel: while Robyn is languorously resting on a bed, the background suggests a more intense experience. Honey was made in an emotionally intense period for Robyn but the result is a soft and delicate collection of songs that look toward the light.
While her name doesn’t appear on the cover – Robyn doesn’t need an introduction, the word ‘Honey’ appears prominently at the top of the cover in bright red letters against a yellow background.The typeface, called Takram, was designed by French graphic Designer Lara Jouan. This typeface and this combination of colours give a very 1990s’ feel to the whole picture.
All these elements put together actually give a true visual representation of the sound of the album: Honey is an homage to the 1990s’, that ear when she started her career but was busy making teen bops rather than experimenting with club music. Honey feels like a personal achievement for Robyn, the imagery of the album and music really come together as one of the highlight of her career.
Listen to Honey here:
Pop Artwork 101 