Lykke Li - Youth Novels

 

In numerous interviews Lykke Li has admitted that the only album she owned when growing up was Madonna’s Immaculate Collection. From this, then, you might expect her debut album, Youth Novels to consist of 80s electronica beats, quirky pop choruses and lots of lyrics about sex. There's electronica a plenty, but Youth Novels takes more of an influence from the Madonna of recent years (awful current album excluded).

This is a slinky, smart record, cluttered with multiple instruments and many, many musical influences. Youth Novels is an album of contradictions, managing to be electronica, folk and straight out pop all at once, buoyant and morose, cheerful and sombre.

It's at its most poppy that Youth Novels works best. Lead single I’m Good, I’m Gone is simple, catchy electro pop music at its very best with Li’s breathy, childlike voice sounding super sassy against a pounding piano melody and heavy bass line. It’s in perfect keeping with the tale of a woman who has ditched the no-good boyfriend (you’ll be calling but I won’t be at the phone Li chants). The track is by far the best moment on the album.

Other similar tracks, however, come close. Dance, Dance, Dance similarly mixes Li’s raspy vocals with a light yet hypnotic beat, boasting some very weird and wonderful instrumentation. Complaint Department with its dark and strange subject matter, is also captivating, yet relies more on beats and is the most dance orientated track on the album. Li offers up the revengeful taunts of an abused lover making it far from poppy, but this is no bad thing. It is a sexy, rhythmic number, and the most sophisticated track here.

However, Li’s signature style of mixing her hushed, breathy vocals with heavy, primitive beats, can, at times, become overbearing. The formula is used just a few too many times on the album and ceases have the punch it does on the very best tracks. Let It Fall suffers in it's place just after Dance, Dance, Dance and I’m Good, I’m Gone and sounds boring in comparison. Hanging High, despite its ethereal, dreamlike quality is a definite album slump and just can't stand up to the rest of the album. On Time Flies the heavy piano makes the song almost hymnal, but Li’s vocals are childish rather than childlike – at times her voice filters off, a quality I'm sure the listener is supposed to find endearing and authentic, but instead it begins to grate.

The good news, though, is that there are enough other tracks on the album that are different, eccentric, and at times, brilliant. My Love is a simple ballad, reminiscent of the Beach Boys at their best with its summery, lolloping melody and gorgeous vocal harmonies. Tonight, a pleading and urgent love song, manages to be as moving as anything Mariah has ever sang, despite Li’s unusual singing style.

Little Bit drifts with soft beats and is similar in style to the likes of Hot Chip and Rafter, mixing Li’s childlike vocals with some pretty direct lyrics (For you I’d keep my legs apart). Li manages to sound almost angry on album closer Window Blues and even experiments with rap on the album’s most overtly R & B track, Everybody but Me. Two of the tracks are spoken word - album opener Melodies and Desires, a repetitive, hypnotic poem with an ethereal feel and the minute and a half long This Trumpet In My Head.

Youth Novels, then, is a pure, simple, and at times incredibly effective pop album. At her best Lykke Li is nothing short of outstanding, but she does overuse the formula to the point where some tracks suffocate, and the album suffers from this. However, there is enough variety here to make Youth Novels a very solid debut, and well worth a listen. Just don’t buy if you don’t like breathy vocals.

Laura Rodwell

Get Youth Novels from Play.com

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