Yesterday, Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li finally followed up her last (and arguably best) album, So Sad So Sexy with a new single called “No Hotel.” We got the Still Sad Still Sexy EP in 2019, but she hadn’t released a full-length project in a minute, so the news that will be changing this year is welcome. She’s officially announced that her next record will be called EYEYE, and according to a press release, Lykke wanted to pursue a completely different, very analogue approach to this album.
“There were no clicktracks, no headphones, and no digital instruments,” the release stated. “The vocals were recorded on a handheld $70 drum mic, often in the moment of composition, giving the lyrics the still-beating sound of fresh heartbreak being whispered into your ear.” In her own words, Lykke said she “wanted the record to have the intimacy of listening to a voice memo on a macro dose of LSD.” Based off this first track, she seems to have achieved all she was looking for. The analogue setup also continued to the mixing stage, as this album was mixed to tape by Shawn Everett.
Today she’s shared a visual component that will set the album apart, too. Directed by Theo Lindquist and shot on 16 millimeter film by cinematographer Edu Grau, seven one-minute visual “fragments” will accompany the music. Lykke stars in the clips alongside Jeff Wilbusch, and you can watch a preview of the films up top. “We wanted to capture the beauty and grandeur of a three-hour European arthouse movie, while making something native to modern media,” Lykke said. “The intention is to deliver the full impact of a movie in sixty seconds on a phone screen, which is where most of our emotional experiences happen now anyway.”
EYEYE will be out on May 20 and she will embark on a tour behind the project beginning in September of 2022. Check out the tracklist for the record below.
EYEYE tracklist:
1. “No Hotel”
2. “You Don’t Go Away”
3. “Highway To Your Heart”
4. “Happy Hurts”
5. “Carousel”
6. “5D”
7. “Over”
8. “ü&i”
