Zara Larsson – Venus
Out of step with the current pop landscape, Larsson’s fourth studio album is something Capital FM would’ve eaten up ten years ago
Zara Larsson is an underrated commercial popstar with stronger pipes and performing faculties than some of her more successful peers. But, with uninspired and incohesive flights between EDM, Europop and Adele ballad apery on Venus, she undersells her talents.
Polished in parts, standout lead single Can’t Tame Her collects the Eurodisco baton from The Weeknd’s After Hours and sprints with strong Hall & Oates form, while Venus, in all its A-ha pep, is satisfyingly spirited synth-pop. On My Love is a solid, if unexceptional, collab with David Guetta, while the combination of a UK garage beat and spiralling Crazy Frog-esque vocal on Ammunition offers a compelling turn that contrasts the bright simplicity of Escape.
But largely, Venus feels out of date, trafficking in facsimiles of overproduced, mid-to-late 2010s pop: More Than This Was gives nondescript 2016 Ellie Goulding, destined for the credits of a passionless, too-glossy Netflix original rom-com, while None of These Guys is indistinguishable from a grating 2018 Anne-Marie single. End of Time limits itself to the ambition of The Wanted, while Nothing drags with the fingerprints of past collaborator Julia Michaels. Resigning itself to well-trodden paths, Venus seems curiously content charting no new territory.
Listen to: Can’t Tame Her, Escape, Ammunition