| Wounded Rhymes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Lykke Li | ||||
| Released | 25 February 2011 | |||
| Recorded | 2010; Los Angeles, California | |||
| Genre | Indie pop, indie rock, indie folk | |||
| Length | 41:02 | |||
| Label | LL | |||
| Producer | Björn Yttling | |||
| Lykke Li chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Wounded Rhymes | ||||
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Wounded Rhymes is the second studio album by Swedish recording artist Lykke Li. It was released in Sweden on 2 March 2011 by LL Recordings.[1]
Contents |
["Get Some" is] just a snapshot, but the album is darker, moodier, and the lyrics are heavier. There's less atmosphere, more directness. I was 19 when I recorded my first album, and I've been exposed to many things during these last few years; all the baby fat is gone. I dove into the craziness and did things that maybe I would think twice about when I get older. And I'm a really restless person; I'm tired of the way I sounded or looked yesterday. So it's hard to hang onto this image of me as this young Swedish female in this world. People comment on how you look, it's so unnecessary. I just wanted people to listen to what I have to say instead of focusing on anything else. And, of course, there are a lot of things I'm angry about in the world.
Li spent six months writing and recording the album in the Echo Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles, while visiting the desert, rewatching Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film The Holy Mountain and listening to Alan Lomax field recordings, eventually coming up with songs she calls "hypnotic, psychotic and more primal".[3] During an interview with Pitchfork Media on 18 November 2010, she commented on her decision to write the album in Los Angeles, saying, "I'm from Sweden so I don't enjoy winter at all; there's nothing cute about it. Right now I'm in Stockholm, and it's so fucking cold and dark. I have such a dark mood in myself already so I don't need things to be darker.
I was totally romanticizing the idea of Los Angeles when the Doors, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young were hanging out there. I was trying to find David Lynch and Leonard Cohen with no luck. It was just more of a retreat. And Los Angeles is such a mysterious place because there's so much evil in that city, but there's also so much light. You can be totally alone on a hillside and I love that kind of secluded, deserted rawness."[2]
Li revealed the album's artwork and track listing on her official website on 14 December 2010.[4]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (83/100)[5] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [6] |
| Clash | (8/10)[7] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (A)[8] |
| The Guardian | [9] |
| NME | (7/10)[10] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.3/10)[11] |
| PopMatters | (9/10)[12] |
| Rolling Stone | [13] |
| Slant Magazine | [14] |
| Spin | (8/10)[15] |
Wounded Rhymes was lauded by music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 32 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".[5] Lou Thomas from BBC Music referred to it as "another outstanding album, slightly better and definitely bigger than Youth Novels. Although there is a level of subtlety at work here far more sophisticated than most mainstream releases, the sound's sheer size is almost overwhelming."[16] Corey Beasley from PopMatters described it as "a dark record, borne of lost love and youthful frustrations, more suited in tone to the frozen lake country than the haze of sunny SoCal. It means this is a seriously heavy and seriously excellent album." He also pointed out that "Li sounds remarkably confident on every last track, and Yttling's wall-of-sound tendencies nicely underscore her swagger."[12] K. Ross Hoffman of Allmusic wrote that the singer "hasn't entirely let go of her girlish sweetness, and she certainly hasn't lost her way with a melodic hook, but she's largely outgrown the more cloyingly precious, occasionally clumsy tendencies that sometimes plagued her debut, and her singing voice, while still appealingly personable and distinctive, has gotten considerably more forceful", while praising the album as "an inspired, rugged, smart, emotive, coolly modern piece of indie pop, and an improvement on Lykke Li's debut in just about every respect."[6] Rolling Stone critic Jody Rosen called it "a weird-pop gem" containing "torchy love songs that nod to Sixties hits but are stretched into all kinds of shapes. Li dips into garage rock and wintry folk, but her guiding spirit seems to be Phil Spector, and she laces the music with booming percussion and girl-group-style romantic melodrama."[13] The Observer's Hermione Hoby viewed it as "a formidable collection of all-woman 21st-century torch songs that reverberate with vengeance and desolation. The arrangements are still stark and driven by syncopated handclaps and off-kilter drums, but now, voice creaking with heartache, she sounds like she's casting dark spells rather than serenading daydreams."[17] Kevin Liedel of Slant Magazine believed that the album "is not so much a stylistic departure as it is a stark transformation of mood: Though still an expert dabbler in gravelly electro-pop, Li sounds positively dangerous now, her voice tormented, biting, and weapon-like, and her accompaniments following suit." He added that "[t]here is a mournful sensuality to Li's near-broken voice that contributes to the album's most triumphant moments, as her every word drips simultaneously with sex and tragedy."[14]
In a review for Spin, Sean Fennessey stated that the album "is equal parts seething ice princess and lonely snowwoman, vacillating almost track by track between fury and despondence over a scotched relationship" and that "[t]he dual objectives—weep for me, fear me—collide throughout, creating a dicey, but gripping album."[15] Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media awarded the album with Best New Music and described it as "an album of stark, scintillating contrasts: between fantasy and reality, between the powerful and the vulnerable, between the brash and the quiet, between the rhythmic and the melodic."[11] Caitlin Meyer of Consequence of Sound wrote, "In a true demonstration of growth and progression as an artist, [...] Wounded Rhymes is a soulful, intricate album that showcases a more vocally confident and mature Li amidst a score of equally powerful and impressive instrumentation."[18] Amanda Petrusich from Entertainment Weekly commented that "[w]hile her 2008 breakout, Youth Novels, was quirky and coy, Wounded Rhymes is hungry, dark, dirty."[8] The Guardian's Michael Cragg opined that "sadness tends to suit her, with producer Björn Yttling [...] encasing the songs in a heady mix of primal drums, tinpot percussion, scratchy guitars and, on the excellent 'Love Out of Lust', a desolate whistle solo."[9] Jazz Monroe, writing for NME, concluded that "for all its wailing codas, swollen strings and silky production, Wounded Rhymes, while a bold statement, doesn't quite strike the same lugubrious groove. But while we bemoan flash-in-the-pan pop stars, it's encouraging to see someone like Lykke sparking attention."[10] John Freeman from Clash called it "brilliant" and stated that "[w]hile opener 'Youth Knows No Pain' and the feisty single 'Get Some' both display Li's 'don't-fuck-with-me' sassiness, Wounded Rhymes really takes off when she allows her vulnerability to leak."[7] Amy Dawson from Metro deemed it "big, beautiful and badass, often all at the same time".[19] Paste's Ryan Reed noted that "Li's voice is basically a mixture of every great female art-pop artist you've heard: there's a bit of Kate Bush's alien whine, a pinch of Bat for Lashes smoke-screen atmospherics, even a hint of fellow Swedish pop sensation Robyn's sassy croon."[20] August Brown from the Los Angeles Times felt that the album is "full of charged contradictions. She's a mediocre singer with a very interesting voice, a fan of classic handmade pop and the ways laptops can serrate it, and a writer obsessed with sex and with sexing up obsession.[21]
Mojo placed the album at number 28 on its list of "Top 50 albums of 2011."[22]
Li premiered songs from the album during live performances across Europe in late 2010.[23] She performed at Heimathafen Neukölln in Berlin on 1 November 2010,[24] at La Maroquinerie in Paris on 2 November,[25] at Heaven in London on 4 November,[26] at Kägelbanan in Stockholm on 8 November,[27] and at Klub Wytwórnia in Łódź, Poland on 20 November.[28] Additionally, she performed at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City on 1 December 2010.[29] Li is also scheduled to tour Europe and North America, starting at El Rey Theatre at Los Angeles on 9 March 2011.[30]
"Get Some" was released as the album's lead single in Sweden on 22 October 2010 via iTunes.[31] Follow-up single "I Follow Rivers" premiered exclusively on SPIN.com on 10 January 2011,[32] and was released digitally in Sweden on 21 January 2011.[33]
Li performed "Get Some" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on 3 March 2011,[34] on Conan on 10 March[35] and on Last Call with Carson Daly on 15 March.[36]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Youth Knows No Pain" | Lykke Li, Björn Yttling, Rick Nowels | 2:59 |
| 2. | "I Follow Rivers" | Li, Yttling, Nowels | 3:48 |
| 3. | "Love Out of Lust" | Li, Yttling, Nowels | 4:43 |
| 4. | "Unrequited Love" | Li, Yttling | 3:11 |
| 5. | "Get Some" | Li, Yttling | 3:22 |
| 6. | "Rich Kids Blues" | Li, Yttling | 3:01 |
| 7. | "Sadness Is a Blessing" | Li, Yttling, Nowels | 4:00 |
| 8. | "I Know Places" | Li, Yttling | 6:06 |
| 9. | "Jerome" | Li, Yttling, Nowels | 4:22 |
| 10. | "Silent My Song" | Li, Yttling, Nowels | 5:24 |
| Nordic iTunes bonus track[37] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 11. | "Made You Move" | 2:46 | |||||||
| iTunes deluxe edition bonus tracks[38] (except Nordic countries) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 11. | "Made You Move" | 2:46 | |||||||
| 12. | "Untitled" (Video) | 3:32 | |||||||
| 13. | "Get Some (With Knives)" (Video) | 3:25 | |||||||
| 14. | "The Only" (pre-order only) | 3:50 | |||||||
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart[39] | 30 |
| Austrian Albums Chart[40] | 53 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[41] | 53 |
| Belgium Albums Chart (Wallonia)[42] | 94 |
| Canadian Albums Chart[43] | 19 |
| Danish Albums Chart[44] | 12 |
| Dutch Albums Chart[45] | 47 |
| Finnish Albums Chart[46] | 18 |
| French Albums Chart[47] | 121 |
| German Albums Chart[48] | 44 |
| Irish Albums Chart[49] | 16 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart[50] | 26 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart[51] | 3 |
| Swedish Albums Chart[52] | 2 |
| Swiss Albums Chart[53] | 38 |
| UK Albums Chart[54] | 37 |
| US Billboard 200[55] | 36 |
| US Rock Albums[56] | 10 |
| US Alternative Albums[57] | 7 |
| Country | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Australia[58] | 25 February 2011 | Warner Music |
| Netherlands[59] | ||
| Ireland[60] | Atlantic Records | |
| United Kingdom[61] | 28 February 2011 | |
| Denmark[62] | LL Recordings | |
| France[63] | Warner Music | |
| Canada[64] | 1 March 2011 | |
| United States[1] | Atlantic Records | |
| Sweden[65] | 2 March 2011 | LL Recordings |
| Germany[66] | 4 March 2011 | Warner Music |
| Italy[67] | 8 March 2011 |
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