Album Review: Tove Lo – ESTRUS
2 min read
Tove Lo is certainly an underestimated pop icon. Since her breakthrough in 2013 with Habits, along with its remix Stay High, she has broken boundaries with her performances and persona, whilst creating some of the best and most inclusive pop bangers. ESTRUS is her sixth full-length and proves to be one of her most accomplished.
After a brief, pumping intro, the album truly begins with the initial single I’m your girl right?, a driving electronic track with Tove Lo’s vocals drenched in reverb and the bass buzzing. If I could I would continues the pace but takes on a more indie atheistic with a low-key delivery and a melody reminiscent of The Cardigans. Des fleurs, featuring Stromae, waltzes along with a hand clapped rhythm and piano motif which fold in and out dreamily while Tove’s vocals glitch and trip along. DNH is a message to a friend who always manages to ruin a night out, with Tove stressing that the song isn’t an attack despite going in hard on the person in question. Lines like ‘you keep requesting that song; putting everyone to sleep’ and ‘at the end of the night I’m the one holding your hair back’ show the love/hate relationship perfectly.
F.A.M.T is about using sex as a quick form of therapy, a sad anthem of loneliness and addiction. Following this, I’m the cake takes the opposite approach, talking about getting experimental in the bedroom. The bad one is a confession to an ex, Tove describing a text she received that resulted in a confusing mix of emotions. ‘I was the bad one and I got away; natural born killer that led your heart astray’. This, over a distorted rhythm and mid-tempo beat. Die for my art with a lonely heart melds love and music together in its juxtaposing forces, while are we on a break pulses like the emotions of not knowing how a lover is doing. Idiot and roomie breeze by in an almost instrumental capacity, and while closer source of life is a flash in the pan, it fizzes with more emotion.
ESTRUS is Tove Lo’s tightest collection of tracks to date. Musically, everything feels full and energetic, with cohesive sounds holding it all together. Her lyrics are as stark as ever, in some places more than before, and her honesty elevates this record to the levels of her contemporaries like Charli XCX. It’s a brilliant album and well worth your time.
Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
