Swedish recording artist Tove Lo just released her second album Lady Wood, an uncensored and honest celebration of raw sexuality and the ups and downs of relationships. While the lyrics tell a beautiful, melancholy tale of failed romances, the repetitive rhythms and similar choruses make this a pop album with what feels like the same song over and over again.
Make no mistake, Lady Wood is well produced and thought out, with each track listed in a specific order within two chapters of the album, “Fairy Dust” and “Fire Fade.” Each track tires to maintain an image Tove Lo cultivated in her first album of a woman going through extreme drugged-up highs to mourn the loss of a relationship while being extremely open about her high sex drive.
Sometimes it fails, and sometimes it succeeds. The raunchiness that accompanied her previous hits through lyrics like “I eat my dinner in the bathtub, then I go to sex clubs” and the total abandonment of caution in “smoke me broke, I don’t care I’m down for what you want” gave Tove Lo the reputation of an honest lyricist who really doesn’t care about her image.
However, she does care about her image, and it’s more obvious in this second album. Each track is carefully selected to demonstrate her message, a confessional of self-destruction and bleary late nights of sex and drugs. But unlike her first album Queen of the Clouds, these tracks deliver a more romantic (while still very sexual) view of relationships. It’s all very similar to The Weeknd’s nocturnal synthpop style, with the brutal honesty of the emotional danger that comes with every interaction and relationship.
While many of the songs on the album do sound similar (check “Flashes” and “Don’t Talk About It”), there are a few standouts. The hit single “Cool Girl” should have been the song of the summer — even Lorde thought so, but it didn’t garner enough attention in the end. The lyrics are poetic and relatable to almost every single woman who acts nonchalant (“I’m a cool girl / Ice cold, I roll my eyes at you boy”) while truly wanting a real relationship. Meanwhile, “Lady Wood” is a creative take on how open women can be about their sexuality and how Tove Lo tends to be criticized about hers.
However, the areas where the album fails is where Tove Lo tries to be upbeat. “Imaginary Friend” and “WTF Love Is” might be the weakest tracks, if only because they feel forced to balance out a generally melancholy album.
But the most important part of Lady Wood is the lack of shock value Tove Lo craved in Queen of the Clouds. It shows a new maturity to her audience; she’s still very open about her sexuality but not out for attention about it. She recognizes the hedonism of her life and discusses it rather than brag about it.
Watch the short trailer for Lady Wood here:
‘Lady Wood’ shows Tove Lo’s new maturity, with the same honesty
Casey Miller
November 1, 2016
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