Erin Blatney
Staff Writer
She has collaborated with Drake, and had a song featured on the The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, but it is doubtful you have heard of this Swedish sweetheart. At 24, Lykke Li has had a pretty fruitful career, and her new album, Wounded Rhymes, is yet another addition to her growing repertoire of amazing music.
Recorded in Los Angeles, Wound Rhymes features a wide range of emotion and versatility. The album is sad, happy, romantic and everything in-between, and the excellent thing is she is able to sing about the same things as everyone else without having it sound like something played before.
Starting things off quickly with the track “Youth Knows No Pain”, Li begins with a powerful, fun tune. “Youth… Pain” is an upbeat melody with spooky keyboards that combine nicely with Li’s vocals. The song holds a feeling of adolescence and is a great start to an even greater album.
The second track and a personal favorite from the album is “I Follow Rivers”. A song of love and dedication, it is one of the sweeter tracks and is also one of the singles released from the album. However, the sweetness does not last long as Li gets into the more dismal songs.
“Unrequited Love” is the fourth song and a sorrowful ballad greatly resembling a country song. There are limited instruments, a guitar and bit of drums and the track allows for Li’s voice to shine without any background music distracting the listener. Her voice is capable of expressing the emotion without the use of any other instruments.
While it may seem like the songs begin to pick up in mood, the remaining tracks still hold a tinge of sadness. One of the great things about the album is the way Li can contrast bright tunes with melancholy lyrics. The songs are dark, but you would not notice unless you paid extremely careful attention to the words she sings.
The somber notes are not overpowering, though. Songs like “Get Some”, the first single from the album, shows a less serious side of the album. Even when Li goes back to the heavy-hearted rhymes, it sounds like a love song from the 1960s. In the chorus of “Sadness Is A Blessing”, Li sings, almost cheerily, about how “sadness is a blessing/sadness is a pearl/sadness is my boyfriend/oh sadness I’m your bird”.
The contrasting songs mean there is never any repetition and each song has its own distinct sound and mood. Wounded Rhymes has Li maturing and using her gloominess to create a magnificent piece of music. It is not as youthful as her previous album, Youth Novels, but it is still good nonetheless.
Though only a mere 10 tracks, it is enough time for Li to demonstrate she is not just good for writing songs used in every teenager’s favorite vampire movie. Hopefully, her career takes off with this album and she receives the recognition she deserves.
