LogFAQs > #893384765

Album #8

Tove Lo - Blue Lips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iASe_veKR74

I'm not sure if Tove Lo is being marketed correctly. Yes, her music and image are intensely sexual and her lyrics forgo innuendo all together, instead discussing sexual activity with the same level of delicacy you'd expect from Khia. But in listening to her full-length albums (all of which are concept albums, of a sort) it doesn't take long to realize that her music is often supremely sad. Even in tracks that seem to celebrate free love and hookup culture there is an underlying theme that this type of behaviour is merely fun, rather than fulfilling.

While both Queen of the Clouds and last year's Lady Wood explored the same concept in the journey of a relationship, her 2017 LP is the first that truly feels like a story from start to finish. Rather than starting with infatuation and limerence before transitioning into the conflict and eventual downfall of the relationship, Blue Lips begins with the conflict and details the struggle of trying to save something that is so clearly broken. It's hard to put into words just how sad this album is. It is still pop music in both production and arrangement, each track hovers around 3:30 in length and her hooks are as catchy as they've ever been, but there is an unsettling air of futility around everything that prevents me from enjoying it the same way as I have her previous albums. The story starts dark, and it just gets more depressing as the album goes on. Tove Lo has never sounded more vulnerable, and the understated electronic production allow you to truly focus on the most cutting and heartfelt lyrics she's ever written.

In short, this is by far the best music she's ever released and it feels like she has finally finished telling the story she began in 2014.
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http://soundcloud.com/thundersheep/these-beautiful-nightmares