Continuing to live, love and fall apart on the dance floor, Sweden’s notorious pop bad gal Tove Lo moves away from her usual style of self-destruction on her fourth album and embraces a more positive outlook as she attempts to rebuild her life.
Lead single Glad He’s Gone sets the pace for this new chapter. Quirky and joyously egotistical, she celebrates a friend’s break up because it means that she can have them back in her life.
While this is pitched as her “happy” album, sunny it is not. Bad as the Boys mournfully explores the sadness that comes from an unrequited love and Really Don’t Like U, the understated and slightly underwhelming duet with Kylie Minogue, uses pulsating synths to channel the envy of seeing an ex move on. However, a real highlight comes in the shape of Jacques, a playful house-inspired collaboration with English producer Jax Jones.
In closing track Anywhere U Go Tove Lo shakes off the past and blindly dives into a new relationship, making this album feel like the light at the end of the drug-fuelled tunnel that she resided in on previous albums.