![]() ![]() And look, I get there is a place for this sort of desaturated, minimalist darkness that's trying to be understated and sexual - see the night club comparison from earlier - but you'd think in order to anchor these songs you'd have a melodic hook or motif to really showcase something catchy. Now it's not a bad record - I can see chunks of this record becoming dance floor staples in really chic high-end clubs that are trying to be so much cooler than they actually are - but it doesn't stick with me, and for all of the ambition that Queen Of The Clouds showed, this record doesn't really follow through.Īnd I'm going to start with the biggest issue right out of the gate: the production and instrumentation. Instead, it's not even sexually provocative in the way I was expecting, and certainly not provocative when it comes to the actual sound and flow of this record. In fact, the more times I listened through Lady Wood, the more I found the record just not registering and connecting for me on any level - and with a title like that, you'd think it would aim for more provocative material. and while many of her younger fans might not remember, I'm familiar with what happened to Madonna in the early 90s - eventually if you try too hard to shock in this lane, people don't get surprised in the same way.īut maybe I'm being too harsh here, maybe there was a place for Tove Lo's directness in 2016, so I took a long hard look at Lady Wood - what did I find? ![]() And sure, that's her prerogative and I generally like that forceful personality, but her lack of greater subtlety meant the play to greater sexuality felt all the more brazen. Coupled with the fact that she had kept the same production team and the biggest guest star on this record was Wiz Khalifa, plus the fact that she was going for a double album concept on a record that didn't even crack forty minutes.hate to say it, but it rang as trying too hard to shock or grab people's attention. And I really liked Tove Lo's artistic persona: wild, reckless, she pushed her lyrics into some dark territory, even if on some level you wished she could take as many chances with her instrumentation and production, or that her lyrics didn't always show the self-awareness to elevate the flagrant irresponsibility, add more subtext.īut while I initially dug her lead-off single 'Cool Girl', with everything else I learned about her sophomore project the more concerned I got, starting with the incredibly on-the-nose album title. And for a while it seemed like she had some momentum: 'Habits (Stay High)' was huge, 'Talking Body' was a very respectable follow-up, and 'Close', her collaboration with Nick Jonas, grew on me a fair bit. And coupled with a forceful and surprisingly layered performance, I thought Tove Lo could easily build herself a potent pop career and give most of her contemporaries some serious competition. Not a great pop album, but I saw buckets of potential from a fairly smart songwriter with a knack for pop nuance and good hooks. See, when I first heard Tove Lo in 2014, I was pretty impressed with her debut Queen Of The Clouds. I've had a sinking feeling about this record for the past few weeks now. And believe me, I definitely haven't wanted that, but the misgivings about this record started coming out early and haven't really stopped. ![]()
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