After her ambitious Body Talk project -- which began as a series of EPs before some of its tracks were collected on an album --
Robyn concentrated on short releases that allowed her to work with a wide range of collaborators and explore different aspects of her multifaceted sound. 2014's
Do It Again found her reuniting with her old friends
Röyksopp on a handful of sleek yet sugary electro-pop tracks, and for
Love Is Free, she teams up with longtime keyboardist
Markus Jägerstedt and producer
Christian Falk as
La Bagatelle Magique to delve into the sounds of '80s and '90s dance. The EP's title track is a driving house workout that captures the genre's heyday so well that it's hard to believe it's not a couple of decades older than it actually is, while "Got to Work It Out" gives the era's vocoder and filtered synths a slightly more modern twist.
Robyn is almost always at her best when she has a strong melody to play off of, and
Love Is Free's highlights -- "Lose Control," "Set Me Free," and the cover of
Loose Joints' "Tell You (Today)" -- are no exception. While the EP is a little more straightforward than
Do It Again, it's a fun, spontaneous portrait of a moment made all the more poignant due to
Falk's death from pancreatic cancer in 2014. ~ Heather Phares