With a title like Kiddo, you might expect this LP to be Tove Styrke’s first. In fact, it’s her second effort – her eponymous debut was released in 2010, which came off the back of her stint in Swedish Pop Idol. As you might expect, even when Sweden does manufactured bubble-gum pop, it’s still some how effortlessly cool – not many veterans of British Pop Idol have the chance to work on their debut LP with Lykke Li.
Since then, Tove has returned with a perfect cocktail of electro-pop: the exuberance of Annie; the surreality of Yelle; the expansiveness of St Lucia (and a falsetto to match FKA Twigs). “Ain’t Got No” crystallises Styrke’s brassy showmanship and self-assuredness. Flashes of organ, audacious brass and bass line with as much attitude as Tove…
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…herself set the tone for what’s to come. “Snaren” is Styrke’s party track. Its domineering synth hook, with Styrke softly spitting threats over the top – “you gon’ be hit alright” – and brazen Beyoncé interpolations (“to the left, to the left”) makes this track a straight-up bid to compete with the best of synth-pop. Not quite as ambitious as Robyn’s version of “Cobrastyle”, admittedly, but it’s not too wide of the mark.
“Borderline” is slice of (slightly melancholy) reggae-infused pop. It nestles right up against the likes of Wild Belle and their easy-going brand of sunshine pop. “Samurai Boy” and “Walking The Line” provide fairly innocuous moments – but this is more than counteracted by Styrke’s ability to deliver blistering putdowns, a skill which is put to good use in this LP.
The wistful flutes and Styrke’s beguiling laugh draw you into “Brag” – a manifesto of her own awesomeness, delivered under a guise of false modesty. She doesn’t brag… but, her life is the shit, yeah? “Ego” is a rebuke for that person in your life who absolutely refuses to get over themselves.
The boldest, brassiest, sassiest put-down of them all arrives in “Even If I’m Loud It Doesn’t Mean I’m Talking To You”. Again, this is one for all the narcissists out there – you know who you are, you’ve a got a “true, mad, deep big crush on yourself”.
Styrke is unapologetic in her out-and-out wilful decision to give precisely zero shits about such self-involved behaviour –“if you do shit like that I don’t need to be nice”. That’s that, then.
As its name implies, Kiddo is deliberately attempt at naivety. At the centre of the LP lies an exuberant brashness, a heady youthfulness. It’s contrived, sure. But that’s no bad thing. High art Kiddo is not. Great fun, it definitely is.
1. Ain’t Got No… (3:52)
2. Snaren (3:01)
3. Ego (3:48)
4. Samurai Boy (3:27)
5. Borderline (3:23)
6. Who’s Got News (3:35)
7. Number One (3:23)
8. Even If I’m Loud It Doesn’t Mean I’m Talking to You (3:04)
9. Burn (3:40)
10. Decay (4:05)
11. Walking a Line (3:50)
12. Brag (3:51)