so sad so sexy
Lykke Li’s fourth album shifts away from the dream-poppy breakup ballads of 2014\'s *I Never Learn* toward airy, melancholic takes on trap and R&B. Despite the contemporary framing (the idea of sadness itself has become a topic of campy, meme-driven internet fascination), *so sad so sexy* feels less like a bandwagon jump than the work of a singer/songwriter committed to exploring blue moods in all their musical forms. It hints at girl-group pop (“utopia”), power ballads (“bad woman,” “so sad so sexy”), prewar torch songs, and the gilded ennui of artists like Lana Del Rey and Drake (“hard rain,” “deep end”). Wounded but quietly triumphant, *so sad* is the sound of the cloud—and its silver lining.
With festival-ready hooks and trap-inspired production, Lykke Li delivers another record about an unraveling romance and the fraught sexuality of its final moments with diminishing returns.
Zeal & Ardor forges an exhilarating new sound on second LP Stranger Fruit; Lykke Li turns inward on the hit-or-miss So Sad So Sexy; and bedroom pop gets a hi-fi makeover on Snail Mail’s full-length debut, Lush. These, plus Angélique Kidjo and Lily Allen in this week’s notable new releases.
The Swedish indie-pop star adds colour and definition to her widescreen melancholia with this lush, R&B-influenced fourth album.
so sad so sexy has undisputed ambition, but the emotional mastery of Li’s best work is too often lost in the haze
The Swedish singer swerves away from the moody pop that made her a success to try out more radio-friendly fare
Four years after the release of I Never Learn, Swedish singer/songwriter Lykke Li returned with another, more effective set of heartbreakers on so sad so sexy.
Lykke Li's latest album fails to strike a satisfying balance, and while it's not a terrible album it's frustratingly complacent after two outstanding albums.
Lykke Li returns with her fourth studio album, so sad so sexy; it feels like the perfect followup to her 2014 release I Never Learn, a heart...
For quite some time now, Lykke Li has specialized in soundtracking a particular kind of moment. So often on her previous releases, she has perfectly encapsulated a crossroad between being disillusioned with love whilst also being completely submissive in
It’s been four years since Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson released her last album, ‘I Never Learn’. Since then, the Scandinavian singer has
Generally speaking 'so sad so sexy' - Lykke Li's fourth studio album - marks a wholesale reinvention for the Swedish musician, one she wears very well.
Lykke Li indulges in extremes of either agony or ecstasy throughout her fourth album, So Sad So Sexy.
Lykke Li stays weird in our review of 'So Sad So Sexy' but doesn't do enough to stand out in the swath of modern indie pop as she tries to embrace it.
The Swedish sad-pop hero musician has had a rocky time and her new album is full of vulnerability yet it swaggers
How does jettisoning her indie roots work for the Swedish popstrel? CD New Music review by Joe Muggs