Crushable ingénue Lykke Li makes prommy, kissy slow jams and hip-hoppity feel-good dance tracks while revealing a few too many pages of her journal. While she thinks the music scene in her resident city of Stockholm could use "more people, and more heat, and more underground culture," the young Swede might help grant her own wishes. Undressed diary lyrics, sing-along choruses and a few gingerly delivered flat notes of the Little Bit EP gives her the unassuming charm of an amateur who knows exactly what she's doing.
The pseudo-coy title track is as hot and clever as a fresh potato roti, made tangibly impulsive with nonstop synth cowbell, primal syllabic ah's and mmm's beneath the restraint of the oft repeated "little bit," and ear-perking lines like "And for you I keep my legs apart/ and forget about my tainted heart." Youtube the video and you'll likely think of at least one person you want to dedicate it to.
“Dance, Dance, Dance” starts with a straight ahead feel-good baseline and takes off with backup vocals reminiscent of the I-Threes that close out the song a capella. Other active ingredients: a bouquet of inventive percussion, a chipper alto sax solo, lurking baritone backups and a Shakira reference. The lyrics hint at puerility with lines like "My hips don't lie cuz in reality I'm shy shy shy"; a self-proclaimed wallflower isn't convincing as such. But there's a chance the proclamation indicates self-acceptance, especially with a reflective prechorus of "I was a dancer all along."
In the slow, R&B jam “Everybody But Me,” the world-touring wallflower uses mono-note, rapid phrasing to sing an indulgent, self-centric lament about being sober and isolated at a club—as if she's alone at prom, kicking around a couple of balloons. The track is made more melancholy with organ, reverby horns, high wispy backups and a confetti of electronic bips and bops. The trembling refrain "Everybody but me" hangs out over the rest of the spare programmed beats and transports you to that lone orbit of the rink during the low-lit couples skate when you wish for someone to just hold you.
The slow and soothing “Time Flies” is where you begin to wonder if the ultra high raspy vocals aren't becoming a gimmicky turnoff—but a sweet lullaby is a sweet lullaby. Piano, cello and sober lines like "Fingers crossed, my time is coming now/ Don't you go, my baby begs me so/Time will fly, upon my baby's back" finish this EP showing sentient youth's emotional buoyancy, and ability to use simple musical elements to make a listener feel something and want to sing with.
Artist:
www.lykkeli.com
myspace.com/lykkeli
Album:
Lykke Li – Little Bit EP – Buy it NOW on Amazon.
