Review Summary: As Nilsson herself has admitted, there is “value to keeping it hidden,” and she’s better at it than perhaps even she or her team knows.
"I’m just really into the raw bluntness of telling it how it is . . . . I think that pop music in general sometimes like to keep things a bit more hidden, and, you know, you censor and you polish to make it fit more people or to not be too vulgar or make sure of 'Can this really play on the radio?' And I like not doing that.”
That’s Tove Nilsson, the artist professionally known as Tove Lo, letting the world know she’s not one of those watered down, corporate pop artists who likes to “keep things a bit more hidden.” It’s a quote that makes her sound kind of cool and edgy . . . until you remember it’s 2014, and 90% of pop music is about going dancing, getting drunk/high, and having sex, and the most common form of music promotion seems to be getting arrested or twerking on Robin Thicke on national television. The industry loves provocation at the moment, and Tove Lo’s debut album, Queen of the Clouds, seems less “raw bluntness” than calculated pandering. Songs about getting drunk and vomiting in a tub? Check. Doing drugs? Literal and metaphorical. How about a vaguely scandalous song about a woman who “Like[s] Em Young?” If this is Tove Lo “telling it how it is,” forgive me for yawning.
That’s not to say this is a bad album. To the contrary, it’s probably one of the best pop albums of the year—but not because of its subject matter. Credit goes instead to Nilsson’s slick hooks and shimmering production by The Struts, Ahlund, and Mattman & Robin. “Timebomb,” probably the best track of the set, builds a sonic orgasm not through its controversial lyrics, but through Nilsson’s free-verse, a charging beat and climbing piano, which build until they “bomb bomb bomb bomb.” As Nilsson herself has admitted, there is “value to keeping it hidden,” and she’s better at it than perhaps even she or her team knows.
