One Liner: An under-the-radar-feeling pop artist with some downbeat tunes
Poster Position: First Quarter - Line 4
Both Weekends.
Saturday at 7:30
SnapChat Stage
Thoughts: I figured that this one might have been here before, but the only thing I found that I have written about her was this blurb, taken from my listen to the Grantland Top Ten Albums of 2014 article written by Stephen Hyden:
8. Lykke Li - I Never Learn "When Swedish pop singers cry, even the tears come out looking perfectly crafted." Yeah, this is a really pretty album - she's got a great voice. But I doubt I would ever listen to it again after the three chances I just gave it.
That was a true statement. Definitely never listened to that again. I used to do a really good job of listening to a handful of top ten lists from each year and giving my own opinion of them, but I found that the writers felt (to me) as though they were reaching farther and deeper into the well of music to find something they could champion that was edgy or unknown and so I'd end up listening to some really crappy stuff so that they could justify their label as a music critic. "No one else put The DeepSharts on their year-end list, I am truly above my peers."
And so, we are left with yet another pop artist up here at the top of the poster. Le sigh. Li Lykke Tomotej Zachrisson is the daughter of Zilverzurfam, a member of the Swedish punk-reggae band Dag Vag. I bet that band's music freaking suuuuuucks. Their top song is "Popitop" with 5.8 million streams, and indeed, it is freaking terrible. I guess it came out in 1983, and so what do you expect, but it sounds like the Swedish Chef trying to sing a Madness B-Side. I find it delicious, but it wort of sucks that someone included that into her Wikipedia as though it should matter at all. Her family moved to Stockholm when she was a toddler, and later lived in Portugal, Lisbon, Morocco, Nepal, India, and Brooklyn. She returned back to Brooklyn when she was 21 to record her first album.
In addition to six albums, she has acted in two movies and appeared as a model in multiple ad campaigns. Funny enough, at least to me, her Wikipedia's awards section shows ten nominations and two wins for the "Grammis" which are apparently the Swedish version of the Grammy Awards. No actual Grammy nominations or awards. She has contributed songs to lots of other projects too - FIFA 09, The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, the Teen Wolf tv show, The Fault in Our Stars soundtrack, the U2 album Songs of Innocence, and Divergent Series: Insurgent soundtrack.
2008's Youth Novels is actually an interesting disc. This doesn't sound like a Swedish Pop Star pushing for dance floor dominance. Instead, it sounds more like someone who has lived all over the world and now come to Brooklyn to work with one of the Peter Bjorn and John guys to make a really good album of indie music. "My Love" just made me look up from the work I was doing to make sure this was still the pop that I thought I was supposed to be listening to. There are real instruments supporting her solid voice here, and I dig those tunes. There are also ones with synths and drum machines ("Complaint Department," looking at you) but this is unexpectedly solid.
2011's Wounded Rhymes is sort of the same, but also has some girl group type songs, not sure what you call that, but like the doo-wop stuff from the 60's, mixed into indie pop? A little weird, but another album that I sort of enjoyed today. It also happens to have her most popular song, which is sort of a weird one, because it really doesn't strike me as a hit. "I Follow Rivers" has 230.3 million streams.
Definitely rushes in poppier than some of the other stuff on the disc, which maybe re-ordered her whole sound for the future? Who knows. But the lyrics are kinda whack with the following and the strained metaphor with the river and the deep sea baby? Huh. Oh well. That 2014 album I mentioned above, when I tried it again, sounds a lot like something that Lana Del Rey would have put out more recently. Sort of cinematic and sad.
Then 2018's so sad so sexy is the next album, and this feels like where she leaves behind the beauty and embraces the machine. This was apparently released after the difficult time of her son being born and then three weeks later her mother dying. I am sorry for her loss, but "sex money feelings die" is a bad song. Of course, it is her most streamed song with 267.8 million spins.
The vocals are annoying. The beat is generic. The chorus is like something that Gwen Stefani left on the cutting room floor because it was too dumb for even her. I am guessing it was used on TikTok a billion times by people trying to be deep or something. 2022's EYEYE wasn't very popular in the streaming department - feels like she tried to back away from the pure pop thing to delve into more sadness and strange effects (like one of these songs like The Cure being played backwards maybe) and was not rewarded for it. Or, like, she tried just writing a soundtrack album for a Bladerunner sequel that never materialized? It is an odd, outlier album.
The 2026 disc really isn't much to get excited about either. 24 minutes long, several of the songs are, again, pretty quiet and downbeat. "Lucky Again" has a little more funk to it, but not enough to really get me excited. Sort of sounds like the kind of song that Madonna would have made recently. Which reminds me that I need to go hear her new album. Supposed to be good. Hopefully it is better than this.
She's not bad for a pop star. I don't know why the lack of any Grammy nominations is sticking in my head, but it just seems indicative of a lack of real star power here. This feels like a niche that most people aren't even missing.
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