Being permanently po-faced and famous is a devil’s pact. Whether you’re penning hits (Kanye West), winning trophies (José Mourinho) or writing economic policy (Gordon Brown), tolerance will turn to contempt once that success begins to falter.
That is one reason why Lykke Li must keep moving to survive. The Swedish melancholist’s fourth album, ‘So Sad So Sexy’, is a trap-pop product that leans heavily into the current zeitgeist when compared with 2014’s terse collection of ballads, ‘I Never Learn’. While it does exactly what it says on the tin in developing Li’s sound, it lacks the guts of her previous releases.
While the album’s quality is fairly consistent, it’s actually pretty hard to pick out winners among the songs.
The unorthodox syllable stresses of Jaguars in the Air’s hook should make it a bonafide earworm, but it’s unclear why you would prefer it over more exciting pop dynamite from Lorde, Dua Lipa or Bebe Rexha.
Elsewhere, Deep End is an excellent Lykke Li power ballad with tinny 808s and gimmicky vocal motifs added to contemporise it. The artistic idea may be justified, but the arrangement - here handled by three different producers - is shanked by over-production. It’s a consistent problem on an album that has 10 producers listed alongside Li’s frequent collaborator Jeff Bhasker.
A pop star like Lykke Li becomes a bit of an avatar for a particular emotion. Like a Lars von Trier protagonist, her brand of grief is galvanised by a kind of earth-shattering single-mindedness. The appearance is that she does not try to impress by playing the industry game despite operating fully within it. And that’s the problem with ‘So Sad So Sexy’ - it feels like it’s been carved up by cigar chomping record executives, with a needy, clamorous result.
As stated, Lykke Li must keep moving and adapting, so the album stops well short of feeling cynical. But one can’t help but think that a little more conceptual boldness might have made ‘So Sad So Sexy' one of the year’s strongest records, given Li’s platform and talent. Right now, it feels like a missed opportunity.
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