"Eyeye": the Lykke Li's 5th album

Swedish singer-songwriter's fifth album is a dreamy, audio-visual experience.

After the clean lines and R&B trap of 2018's So Sad So Sexy, Lykke Li tries to break the cycle of love addiction that has fuelled so much of her pensive songwriting. Co-produced with long-term collaborator Bjorn Yttling, this 33-minute suite was recorded in her LA bedroom with a $70 drum mike and analogue synths. It has a gentle, pared-down intimacy, flowing with acid ballads and devotional dream pop. 

 

Where So Sad... had a hard-edged energy, this LP revolves around self-forgiveness and regret. Linked with a short palindromic film, her songs have an eerie intensity, with chiming melodies and church organ filtered through airborne sound and glitches, like Li is mining the inner recesses of her psyche. Some tracks have sunnier, more open chords, but most powerful are the looping, levitating rhythms of You Don't Go, and the seven-minute closer U&I.

 

Lucy O’Brien