The Swede’s melancholy pop has never sounded so pompous.
When the Belgian house DJ The Magician played their song in the early 1900s “I Follow Rivers” remixed, Lykke Li became an international star. The large-scale club sound had little to do with the melancholy and often fragile music on display by the now 40-year-old artist. However, Lykke Li’s sometimes distant singing also cut a good figure with beats made by Mark Ronson.
Their sixth album THE AFTERPARTY is surprisingly maximalist, yes, cinematic: a 17-piece string orchestra, flutes and bongos ensure an opulent sound aesthetic. Even if there are still quiet moments, this time she dares to make big gestures and remembers in the piece “Happy Now” almost reminiscent of ABBA, elsewhere wanted to be reminiscent of Vivaldi: Max Richter’s adaptation of “The Four Seasons” is used in the rousing single “Lucky Again” sampled.
The disco song is a kind of prayer: “Lord, I don’t know how, and I can’t say when / If we’re lucky, we’ll get lucky again,” sings the emotional researcher here. It’s about fleeting and intense happiness, but also despair and shame. But sadness can also be a blessing, to quote an old song title from the Rilke reader. But today Lykke Li translates this wisdom into euphoric disco and even atmospheric noise pop songs.
