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.
