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Better than Madonna

Robyn

Everybody dug Confessions on a Dance Floor, but I’m one of approximately 12 people who liked American Life, Madonna’s weirdly militant 2003 disc. To judge by a snippet-stuffed YouTube video that surfaced last week, I’m not sure I’ll be able to say the same about Hard Candy, which is due in stores April 29. Love Justin Timberlake and Timbaland and the Neptunes, but I don’t get why Madonna thinks she has nothing more to say than Nelly Furtado. I await the opportunity to be proved wrong; until then, here are four other high-gloss pop tarts with product to move.

Robyn | “Handle Me” | Americans know this Swedish singer (who comes to the Paradise this Tuesday) from her decade-old teen-pop single “Show Me Love.” In Europe, however, she’s been an edgy electro-pop queen since the release of her homonymous album three years ago. Robyn is finally coming out in the States April 29, spearheaded by a delightful lead single in which she cheerfully gives some “boot-lickin’ ” dumb-ass what-for.

Kylie Minogue feat. Mims | “All I See” | When Robyn inked with Interscope’s Cherrytree imprint, her new label bosses had the singer appear on a Snoop Dogg remix to whet US appetites. Here, Minogue does the opposite, recruiting Mims (the “This Is Why I’m Hot” guy) to give this single from her new X some American hip-hop bite. They’re an odd but endearing couple.

Róisín Murphy | “You Know Me Better” | Former Moloko singer Murphy veers between big-beat disco-house and micromanaged electro-soul. This excerpt from last year’s Overpowered (produced by Andy Cato of Groove Armada) is a delicious example of the former

Sally Shapiro | “Jackie Junior (Junior Boys Remix)” | This publicity-shy Swede may or may not be an invention of her producer, Johan Agebjörn. (Synth-pop divas and conspiracy theories — was the Internet invented for anything else?) Regardless of whether she exists, Shapiro makes some of the world’s loneliest-sounding electro ballads; in this selection from a new remix collection, the Junior Boys crank the isolation factor even higher.