Released: May 20
Lykke Li continues to prove herself a master of sad-pop on her latest album ‘Eyeye’.
Reuniting the Swedish star with her longtime collaborator Björn Yttling, producer of her first three albums, the new record clocks in at 33 minutes and is the result of heavily restricted sessions at the insistence of the singer-songwriter.
There were no clicktracks, no headphones, and no digital instruments, and she recorded her vocals on a handheld $70 drum mic – often in the moment of composition – for her most intimate collection yet.
“I wanted the record to have the intimacy of listening to a voice memo on a macro dose of LSD,” Lykke says.
Setting the tone with first track No Hotel, the album is strikingly minimalistic, with her raw vocals and lyrics the main focus of its eight tracks.
On the quiet opener, Lykke is seen reminiscing about a former love, as she almost whispers the lyrics: ‘There’s no hotel / No cigarettes / And you’re still in love with someone else’.
In carving out a style that’s wholly unique to who she is as a performer, Lykke peppers the album with touches of various genres, from the synth-laden Americana of Highway To Your Heart to the psych-pop of Happy Hurts.
Carousel is a dreamy mid-point in the set that allows the LP to breathe, ahead of closer Ü&I, which clocks in at over 7 minutes, featuring an extended outro of ambient noise and creating a world for the music beyond her vocals.
But on ‘Eyeye’, the music is only half of the story; the project is also a visual album, directed by Theo Lindquist and shot on 16 millimetre film by cinematographer Edu Grau.
“We wanted to capture the beauty and grandeur of a three-hour European arthouse movie, while making something native to modern media,” she says of the one-minute videos, which are to be viewed as fragments of a bigger story.
“The intention is to deliver the full impact of a movie in sixty seconds on a phone screen, which is where most of our emotional experiences happen now anyway.”
In her quest, Lykke succeeds in crafting an arresting, emotive LP that demands attention and hooks you into a 360-degree immersive world of music and film that pushes her artistry to another level.
Largely a mid-tempo record, it’s impossible not to wonder how ‘Eyeye’ would have turned out with a few more pop hooks; but there again, ‘Eyeye’ isn’t an all-out pop record. Instead, it’s a deeply personal, intimate collection that explores who Lykke is as a person – beyond her stage persona – resulting in one of the most evocative albums we’ve heard in a long time.
‘Eyeye’ is out now digitally and available to pre-order on physical formats.
