Tove Lo: Blue Lips
Details
Genre: Dance pop, ElectronicaPros:
Tove Lo brings on her finest dancefloor anthem to date with "Disco Tits."Cons:
After "Disco Tit,s," it's hard to find anything that will top it or even match it. Even with modest explorations into rock, Tove Lo sinks back into sleepy rhythms and more druggy fantasizesAfter killer dancefloor opener, Tove Lo leaves us wanting more on second set of Lady Wood saga
After killer dancefloor opener, Tove Lo leaves us wanting more on the second set of Lady Wood saga
Breaking into the mainstream on the debut LP Queen of the Clouds, Sweedish pop singer/songwriter Tove Lo made industry noise with her drugged love balladic drama and breakthrough singles, particularly “Talking Body.” But more was expected from her, including a jump into uptempos or just another side of her personality. On BLUE LIPS, the second half of the Lady Wood saga, the “Habits (Stay High)” singer revs up the tempo and adrenaline some.
There’s an appetite to go towards neo-disco, thanks to the whirly spaced-out opening track “Disco Tits.” With exotic phrasing and verses that sound like Nu Shooz’s ’80’s dance favorite “I Can’t Wait,” Tove Lo pulls off her finest contribution to the dance floor. And her lyrical zingers are just as jarring to the ear: “I’m fully charged/nipples are hard, ready to go.” It’s an ear-grabbing expedition since Tove Lo dropped strobelight workouts on Lady Wood with the Wiz Khalifa-featured “Influence” and the feelgood rhythmic title track.
But don’t expect anything else to leap like that from the rest of BLUE LIPS, at least with that type of velocity. That’s not to say the album is void of interesting moments. “Stranger” sounds like the-best-of-Artpop discotheque remnants. The two-minute “Bitches” gallantly meshes distorted rock and Alanis Morissette soul. But the Daye Jack-guested “Romantics,” is probably the album’s next important moment. “We could be romantics for life…like drugs make us feel/unreal,” the two sing across a sexy track that flows like dreamy R&B resting atop lounge EDM.
Tove Lo remains provocative and interesting, but this entire new chapter of music still seems like a continuation of the sleepier intoxicated past, especially since “Disco Tits” left us all hungry for more. And it seems like the subpar moments somehow outpaces the grander moments: “Cycles” sounds disjointed and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” feels incomplete musically. The standouts seem to be spottier this time around. The plus side is there are more plunges into hybrid rock, indie pop and underground EDM on this round, and that’s a good thing for an artist this eclectic, but in a world when Lorde is strangely shapeshifting into an emo Donna Summer and when a flush of acts like K.Flay are putting out similar drug reality tales, Tove Lo is sounding like she’s trailing in a lane she once dominated.
