The fact that one can still smile about the song “I Hope You Die” even after a decade shows what a bright lyricist Molly Nilsson has always been. So it’s fitting that a new album is coming from her when she’s tired of sitting around at home. It also says EXTREME, but it goes far beyond the first appropriate associations (powerful, new start, female empowerment). EXTREME is something like a romantic indictment of the Anthropocene, wrapped in driving 80s soul, attacking metal riffs and varied, repetitive dark pop.
Which brings us to Nilsson’s second strength: bagging formal contradictions in such a way that they don’t bog down in complications, but instead make aesthetic sense. “The deepest desire I can’t explain / If it wasn’t for love then it’s all in vain / Did they feel this way that night in Pompeii?” the song “Pompeii” says. Pondering the end of a love so cleverly in a lo-fi disco thriller is as discrepant as it is beautiful. And leads to what is perhaps the album’s most extreme message: to be caught up in thoughts and still be free, yes, that’s possible.
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