Album Review: Lykke Li – The Afterparty
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Lykke Li is most comfortable in the spaces after the lights go down — heartbreak, regret, romance, loneliness… the emotional debris left once the night is over. Since emerging in the late 2000s with her blend of indie pop, electronic minimalism, and stark vulnerability, the Swede’s built a catalogue that feels simultaneously intimate and cinematic. The Afterparty, released via Neon Gold, is her sixth studio album and feels like a continuation of that world. Written following a period of personal upheaval and creative retreat, the record’s title hints at reflection rather than celebration — less concerned with the chaos itself, more interested in what’s left once the noise fades away. So… was The Afterparty worth sticking around for? Let’s find out….
Not Gon Cry kicks off proceedings with a snare and persuasion that builds into a track which has a gospel feel to the chorus, which leads to Happy Now, which has a good skip beat and feels like some of the better pop tracks from the early 2000s, with the chorus featuring great inclusion of orchestral strings. Lucky Again next – starting with orchestral strings and feeling more down tempo that prior tracks, this has a very turn of the 1990’s feel to the composition… which is not a bad thing, and this is followed by the stripped back, melancholy Famous Last Words.
Future Fear is a ninety-ish second track which builds atmosphere into a short, precious vocal, and leads into So Happy I Could Die perfectly – largely acoustic guitar, at a mid-tempo and has a semi-ethereal quality to it… hands down my favourite track on the album. the sick rumba beat flows through Sick of Love in another great down tempo atmospheric track, leading into the penultimate track Knife in the Heart – which sees a return to the earlier gospel-like feel, but with a more down tempo vibe, and we end with another down-tempo, quasi-melancholic track Euphoria, which honestly is not very Euphoric, but is a nice little closer of a track nonetheless.
The Afterparty was ok… I’d not had any prior exposure to Lykke Li’s work, and it was a listen that I didn’t feel tempted to skip through (potentially aided by the under thirty minute run time), though I found it hard to point to any particular highlights… that being said the album was (IMO) well balanced and conversely didn’t feature any obvious fails or lowlights… it was a good, solid album – a 100% good solid coffee shop album. I have no doubt fans will love it, and neutrals won’t hate it, but it’s not going to stand out in my mind when I think back at the albums I’ve reviewed at the end of the year – It’s not that I don’t Lykke, it’s that I don’t Luvve… sorry!!
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