Tove Lo – Dirt Femme

Dirt Femme is the fifth album from Swedish pop sensation Tove Lo. A pandemic baby, the album is a mixed bag as the singer explores new paths for herself, releasing for the first time via her own label Pretty Swede Records. “I hadn’t played a show in two years, so I was back to writing in my bedroom,” she admits. “I treated it as my journal.”

This comes across in the earnestness of the lyrics, which are at turns pleasingly dramatic: 'No one dies from love / Guess I’ll be the first', she sings over a disco beat on the album’s opening track. Elsewhere, they are achingly candid. Suburbia, a song about the singer’s recent marriage and lack of desire for children is a good example of this. 'What if I change my mind and want one, then I can’t have one – would you leave me then?' she asks during a synthesiser break.

This lament on Stepford-y mediocrity slides effortlessly into 2 Die 4, the album’s lead single – an infectious nostalgic slice of dance-pop, sampling a groove from Hot Butter’s 1972 single Popcorn (later sampled again by infamous noughties floorfiller Crazy Frog). 

Pineapple Slice, one of two collaborations with SG Lewis on the album, is in firm Tove Lo territory: a trippy hit about finding love in the club. For much of her career Tove Lo has charted a path as an unashamed club kid, for whom almost nothing cannot be explored over seductive synth beats. That is true here too, but less so than on previous records. An unexpected collaboration on Cute & Cruel with dreamy folk duo First Aid Kit, and the grungey guitar-driven ballad I’m To Blame let us hear Tove Lo’s voice rawer and less produced than ever before.

Listen to: Pineapple Slice, Suburbia, 2 Die 4