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Track Listings
| 1. Youth Knows No Pain |
| 2. I Follow Rivers |
| 3. Love Out Of Lust |
| 4. Unrequited Love |
| 5. Get Some |
| 6. Rich Kids Blues |
| 7. Sadness Is A Blessing |
| 8. I Know Places |
| 9. Jerome |
| 10. Silent My Song |
Product Description
Review
Despite acres of critical acclaim, Lykke Li’s debut album Youth Novels barely registered with the public outside of the Swedish singer’s home country. A tender blend of the funky, the sensual and the elliptical, the 2008 record will probably be discovered by gleeful new fans shortly after this second album kicks the singer’s profile up several notches.
Wounded Rhymes is 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.
Driving, booming percussion, including much ominous pounding of kettle drums, is prominent in many songs, from the stirring call-to-arms opener Youth Knows No Pain to the thrillingly voyeuristic single I Follow Rivers. When these cascading beats combine with Lykke’s often bleak or malevolent lyrics, the tunes resemble a haunted wall of sound, like Phil Spector hijacking a ghost train.
Lykke’s voice occasionally recalls that of Dusty Springfield. She certainly tackles the uncertainties and unhappiness of love with as much pathos as the late soul siren. Love Out of Lust is sadder than eating alone in a public place, while the doo-wop lament of Unrequited Love is a thing of beauty and thankfully far less harrowing than its title.
The album’s centrepiece is Get Some, first unveiled online last October to grateful and justifiably excited listeners. Any song with lines like, "Like a shotgun needs an outcome / I’m your prostitute, you’re gon’ get some," must be immense, and it is. Percussion is at its most frenzied on the album, Lykke is at her most evil and decisive, and the whole thing throbs malignantly.
Special mention must also go to Jerome, the aural equivalent of Sandra Bernhard’s scary kidnapper in The King of Comedy, and Silent My Song. The latter is the only time fellow Swede alt-heroes The Knife are an overt influence. Their trademark industrial clank and foghorn/didgeridoo synth sound are all over the song like cheese on toast, while lyrics like, "I can’t tell if I am living or just holding on," would please Karin Andersson.
With Adele’s chart success, PJ Harvey’s solid new material and the possibility of a new Kate Bush album, 2011 is shaping up to be a terrific year for strong, distinctive female voices. If Wounded Rhymes brings Lykke Li huge success, it will be richly deserved.
--Lou Thomas
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
CD Description
Wounded Rhymes is the sophomore release from Swedish songstress Lykke Li. Here she casts aside the fragility and shyness of her critically acclaimed debut and moves towards a darker, commanding sound. With empowerment being a strong theme throughout the album, single "Get Some" encompasses this in its tribal nature and cult themed video. Produced by Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn & John, Li's otherworldly voice and presence is enhanced through the use of Hammond organs and inventive harmonies.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strangely addictive,
By
This review is from: Wounded Rhymes (Audio CD)
I heard this in a local independant cd shop and thought it was really interesting. Bought it on a whim and played it a couple of times in the car, then played it again.....and again.....Its different, quirky, percussive and a bit left wing, but the tunes worm into your head and you want to get to know them better, so you play it again..... I can see this being one of my fasvourites of the year. Give it a try, play it a few times and you too could be hooked. I Follow Rivers and Get Some are just brilliant songs. This could be massive, but I suspect it's not mainstream enough.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lykke Li - The Swedish princess's attention grabbing pop extravaganza,
By
This review is from: Wounded Rhymes (Audio CD)
Take your eye of the ball for one moment and suddenly early in the season Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson better known as Sweden's Lykke Li scores a very special goal. Indeed only three months into to the year she may well have recorded one of the "pop" albums of 2011 with "Wounded Rhymes" and proved yet again that the current crop of diminutive female singers (see Janelle Monae) pack a real wallop. Li is described in the blurb to accompany this album as "a Kung-fu Marianne Faithful, and an armed Nancy Sinatra on peyote" and thats fair enough as a nice bit of marketing; in fact if you were to add The Ronettes into the equation and a sprinkling of her Swedish chums The Knife you would be in the ball park in terms of influences. She is nonetheless very much her her own woman and this album has a nice dark slant to temper its more overt poppier instincts. Check out opener "Youth knows no pain" which starts with huge percussion, almost a Charlatans style key board riff and a delicious vocal by Li giving it a sixties feel which for some reason cries out to soundtrack a Austin Powers film. The single "Get some" is completely infectious and riotous where Li informs us over tribal drum that she is" like a shotgun who needs a outcome" and one would sincerely hope that the result would be a huge hit single. The latest single off the album however is "I follow rivers" which starts with a xylophone tinkle and pounds deep into you skull with a hammering pop sensibility and a daft lyric, while "Rich kid blues" could happily soundtrack a James Bond film.Li's strengths also go far beyond the well crafted pop song and in "Unrequited Love" she echoes the do wop themes of the Shangri Las with an aching ballad and if its possible the six minute plus "I know places" is even lovelier and one of the albums highlights. Alternatively "Jerome" has that great Fever Ray pounding quality to it and once it finishes press the repeat button not least to replay that sultry vocal. Like last years "Go" album by Jonsi "Wounded Rhymes" is and immediate and accessible and jam packed with songs with enough hooks to make the whole affair attention-grabbing, memorable, easy to dance to and completely irresistible. As with all great pop music it also has hidden depth and a slightly wicked and defiant core. Thus unlike her first album her sophomore record is more cutting than cute, qualities which are drawn out by the excellent production of Björn Yttling who proves himself the Nordic equivalent of Phil Spector on "Sadness is a blessing". Lykke Li is frankly an adorable pop star and if this album doesn't turn your unrequited love into an obsession you really need to have your pulse checked.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, haunting sophomore effort,
By Avg Joe (Norwich UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wounded Rhymes (Audio CD)
By all means, highly recommended. 'Wounded Rhymes' is just about in all ways a step up from 'Youth Novels,' in its sound, scope, and musicianship. Whereas YN was great, but somewhat cute and reserved in some places, not much was held back here. LL is much more assured with her lyrics and her vocalizing, and they get center stage rather than the instruments, especially on the sparer slow tracks. The songs and talent simply feel more mature: sometimes darker sometimes softer, but almost always fuller. The sound resembles kindred talents like The Knife/Fever Ray/Bjork (sparse sometimes twitchy melodies in echoey, cavernous settings) and Annie/Robyn/Royksopp (catchy hooks, danceability), but LL is also all alone in her world. 'I follow rivers' and 'Lust out of life,' a great one-two punch, are absolutely addictive, as are 'I know places' and 'Get some'. The only stinker (for me) in this set is 'Rich kids blues'; awkward and derivative, esp the chorus, it gets skipped a lot, which is actually a helluva lot when the rest is so superb, so irresistible. Finally, the album is paced astonishingly well, a rarity these days. So one wants to listen to the whole thing in sequence as an opus, rather than key tracks over and over again, or on shuffle. Get it, you won't be disappointed.
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