Pitchfork

Video clips could only go so far to explain why so many cultish Robyn fans went giddily berserk last week at the Swedish pop singer's first New York show since who knows when. But even those of us in attendance had to share Robyn with the 700 other people there who also knew all the words. There's nothing coming between Robyn and the audience-- least of all tall dudes who won't stop nodding or waitresses politely trying to slip by to sell drinks-- in this set of videos from her Feb. 8 "acoustic" session at the W Hotel in San Francisco, put on by local radio station Energy 92.7. These high-quality fan clips show Robyn performing with minimal backing of just a keyboard and, on her reworking of 1997 hit "Show Me Love", plinking percussion. These and her powerful voice were all Robyn needed to cram even more sweet, sweet heartache into her "ballad version" of "Be Mine", Pitchfork's #21 single of 2005, and "With Every Heartbeat", our #57 track of 2006 and a UK #1 single last year. (Big thanks to DJ Rotten Robbie for the tip and the video.)

Robyn: "Be Mine"

Robyn: "Show Me Love"
 

Robyn: "With Every Heartbeat"

[Robyn is out now in the UK and Europe and due in the U.S. later this year on Konichiwa/Interscope]