Robyn Shoots Us With Dopamine

Well, gays, have you been filled with the love and pleasure of the mother of all neurotransmitters, dopamine? I mean, by "Dopamine," the first new song since 2018 by Swedish powerhouse Robyn? When she first hinted her great big news, the gays have been in a tizzy for this new track to drop, and honey's it does not...cannot...disappoint.

Lemme tell you a story. It was 1990 or '91, I think, and yer boy Hank here, still a bit of a twinkish baby-gay, was excited to meet up with his hottie man he'd been seeing for a bit. It was the day of the gay pride parade in Chicag,o and unfortunately, I had to work a waiter shift at a popular gay diner in the gayberhood. It was busy, to say the least, and by the time I got off, I was more than ready to shower, get out, and have a drink. I was supposed to meet the dude at a popular dance club. I arrive, look around, get a drink, plant myself on the edge of the crowded dance floor, and finally see him. Across the room. In a corner. Making out with someone else. I head over, make a quiet confrontation to which he simply shrugs, apologizes, and wonders aloud why I'm upset.

It always sucks when you're in a relationship and they're just having fun, am I right?

Cut to years later, and I'm driving around LA with one of my besties. And he's introduced me to Robyn's album Body Talk Pt. 1. We've been drinking, and it's been one of those magical nights, and the sound pouring out of his speakers was some of the greatest tear-jerking dance music I've ever heard. Then "Dancing On My Own" comes on, and it was a goddamn revelation for me.

Not since Bronski Beat and their songs "Why" and "Smalltown Boy" had I felt so compelled to dance and sing, and bawl my eyes out, all at the same time. The compulsive mix of pulsing beats and lyrics filled with raw heartache was almost too much to bear. The song is a wonder still to this day. I have to admit that Chappell Roan, someone to whom's game I was late to, does the same thing for me with "Pink Pony Club."

When I had the pleasure of seeing her in concert several years ago in Chicago's Millennium Park, I was moved to tears when the first notes of the song began to play. The crowd couldn't be contained, and yes, I became that guy and caught the whole thing on my phone for posterity.

If you ever have the chance to see her live, I highly recommend it. That woman, and she's not a youngster, performed one song while doing abdominal crunches for the entire song! I was aghast.

"I know it's just dopamine/but it feels so real to me."

And now, after too many years, we finally have "Dopamine." As someone wrote over at Edge Media Network, "Robyn’s legacy is built on turning the personal into the universal. Her songs are the soundtrack to countless queer nights out, breakups, and breakthroughs. With 'Dopamine,' fans are hoping for more of the same—music that makes you want to cry, dance, and reclaim your story, all at once. In a world where queer joy is still radical, Robyn’s return feels like a cultural reset."

The song has a similar beat that pushes and throbs, with an amusing repeating "dope" keeping the beat throughout the entire song. But what hearkens back to her best work is the ache under the joy. With lyrics that express her joy of the feeling of fresh love, she admits to her love, "I just need to know/That I'm not alone." That's the hurt of experience many of us know. It's the hope bred of past hurts.

"This is one of those onеs where you've just gotta give in
I'm going to give it my all
This time, it's going to be whatever, and that's cool
I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve"

Me too, Robyn. Me too.

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