Album review: Tove Lo’s Lady Wood is full of honesty

Pop singer Tove Lo’s second album is a deliciously murky trip into dark club music. Lady Wood is as close to a punk EDM album as possible.

Tove Lo performes at Beats on the Beach in Abu Dhabi.Vidhyaa for the National
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Lady Wood

Tove Lo

Island Records

Three stars

Pop singer Tove Lo's second album is a deliciously murky trip into dark club music. Lady Wood is as close to a punk EDM album as possible. The 29-year-old, who performed in Abu Dhabi last year as part of Beats on the Beach, has been making a name for herself with her chill synth-pop and honest lyrics.

Her 2014 debut, Queen of the Clouds, gave us the hits Habits (Stay High) and Talking Body. She also gained attention as the co-writer of Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do, earning herself Grammy and Golden Globe nominations.

The album kicks off with the Britney Spears-sounding Influence, which gets a welcome assist from Wiz Khalifa, and then it's all about glow sticks and doomed hookups. The last five songs find her at her most mature lyrically and weary. In Don't Talk About It, she realises that hedonism hasn't necessarily made her any happier: "Know you're ­loving the highs you get in between the lines of a life you don't need." Heavy stuff from a promising pop talent.