I've always had an affinity for new music that can allow me to revel in memories from a period of my life that has long since passed. Music that, while not around at the time, teleports me back to those awkward years of self-consciousness and self-doubt. Those years when a person's very existence seemed to depend upon the approval of others, more specifically, those of the opposite sex. For many people only the actual music from that time can take them back in such a way. For me, most of the time, I don't really ever care to hear that music again, barring a few exceptions e.g. "Wicked Game" (what guy didn't want to switch places with Chris Isaak, right?). It takes a special formula to create new music that can vividly capture/conjure those days of yore and Lykke Li does it very well.
On Swedish-born indie/pop artist Lykke Li's debut album Youth Novels she beautifully captured the exuberance, angst, nervousness, pain, and innocence of youth as well as the subsequent desire to lose that innocence. Delivering her lyrics with a breathy voice that is at once fragile, coy, and coquettish as well as a bit haunting and dreamy. Being only twenty-two at the time of it's release it was surprising to hear such a richly diverse album from a newcomer, with the songs "Tonight", "Little Bit", "Breaking It Up", and "Everybody But Me" being the standouts. For a debut album to have so many great songs is truly an accomplishment, especially from one so young. Now, with the release of her sophomore album Wounded Rhymes, she proves that she is more than just a one album wonder.
While Wounded Rhymes still deals with much of the same subject matter as Youth Novels you now get the feeling that she's seen and done a few things since we last heard from her. Been around the block. On the lusty, bombastic "Get Some" she's clearly wanting to shed her innocence, at least for a night, and has her own idea of how it's going to go down (I'm your prostitute/you gon' get some). On the catchy, toe-tappy "Youth Knows No Pain" she implores us to lose ourselves in a bit of youthful rebellion if only for a moment. However, she shows her familiar lovelorn side on tracks like "I Follow Rivers", "Sadness Is A Blessing", "Love Out Of Lust", and "Unrequited Love" which is delivered, in contrast to Novels, with a voice that is stronger and seems to be coming from a girl who is not quite as naive and sweet as she used to be. Is she in danger of becoming a woman?
It can be bittersweet to watch an artist mature from the growing pains of youth filled with angst and overly dramatic longings to an adult confronting sexual desires and harsh realities while trying to hold on to some of the ideology and innocent beauty of their youth. So much creativity is driven by those years when we are trying to figure out who we are and where we are going that it can leave a sad longing when we finally figure it out. Let's hope that Miss Li - now two fantastic albums into her career - will still be making fun, sad, boisterous, subdued, and rebellious music for a long time to come. Even if it does have to leave the innocence behind.
