Four years after the release of her most recent album “I Never Learn,” Swedish songstress Lykke Li dropped two new songs, “Deep End” and “Hard Rain.” The songs are the first tracks to emerge from her long-percolating fourth album “So Sad So Sexy” (in an announcement, the song and album titles are rendered all in lowercase). The album is due on June 8 on RCA Records — Li’s first release with the label.
“Hard Rain,” which is being promoted as the single, was produced by 2016 Grammy producer of the year Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Jay-Z, Fun), Malay (Frank Ocean, Alicia Keys) and T-Minus. “Hard Rain” was produced by Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij.
The songs mark a stylistic departure for the singer, incorporating elements of the Swedish-pop sound of her previous albums with a more hip-hop/alt-R&B-leaning production.
A rather confusing line in the press release announcing the songs reads “Prior to recording this album, Lykke was busy nurturing liv, her love-child with Andrew Wyatt, Björn Yttling, Pontus Winnberg and Jeff Bhasker, which allowed this collective a mutual creative outlet.” That is in reference to a “supergroup of sorts” formed by the four — Wyatt and Winnberg are members of Miike Snow, Yttling of Peter Bjorn & John — which has released four songs so far. Li and Bhasker also have a son together, Dion, who turns 2 next month.
The singer will be on tour this summer.
“so sad so sexy” tracklist:
01 hard rain
02 deep end
03 two nights (feat. Aminé)
04 last piece
05 jaguars in the air
06 sex money feelings die
07 so sad so sexy
08 better alone
09 bad woman
10 utopia
