Tell her what not to say, and she’ll say it louder
With ‘Lady Wood,’ Tove Lo is even more fearless
Tove Lo never has been one for apologies.
When the Swedish pop rebel infiltrated the Top 40 in 2014 with Habits (Stay High), which hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, she was widely embraced by critics and fans for her candid, evocative lyrics. (The opening line: “I eat my dinner in my bathtub / then I go to sex clubs / watching freaky people getting it on.”) But she also got vitriol from bloggers who accused her of promoting sex, drugs and alcohol and blamed her for the “sluttification of women.”
The blowback empowered her to write even more fearlessly on her searing sophomore album,
Lady Wood (out now). “A lot of times as women, if we do something the same way a guy would — especially when it comes to being open about sex and being naked — it’s more of an issue, like we need to address it and be aware that we’re not the best role models,” says Lo (real name Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson). With this album, “I’m definitely more vocal, because I didn’t understand with the first record (2014’s Queen of the
Clouds) that was going to be something people found provocative. Now that I get that, I’m like, ‘ Hey, don’t tell me what I can’t say.’ ”
Lady Wood is a cheeky reference to female arousal — a sensation that plays heavily into the album’s titillating first half, titled “Fairy Dust.” “It’s a lot about love, but also about chasing rushes and doing things that turn you on and scare you at the same time,” says Lo, 29. True Disaster is about staying with someone even though you know it’ll end in heartbreak, and
Vibes details the ecstasy of romance over a minimal techno beat. She was inspired to write Cool
Girl, the album’s wobbly, bassheavy lead single, after watching the thriller Gone Girl. The title is a reference to a memorable passage from Gillian Flynn’s 2012 novel, as “Amazing ” Amy Dunne (played by Rosamund Pike) describes the unrealistic expectations men put on women.
“I thought, ‘ Why do we change ourselves for someone we want and then expect to get something real out of it? Why is it when we like someone, you’re supposed to act like you’re not interested to make them more interested in you?’ It’s this weird ‘Why is show- ing your emotions so scary?’ It’s hard for us to accept who we really are, because there’s so many rules about who we’re supposed to be.”
That identity crisis seeps through the cracks of the album’s second chapter, “Fire Fade,” as Lo wrestles with bottled-up emotions on Don’t Talk About It. The anthem was inspired in part by her upbringing in a well-to-do neighborhood outside Stockholm with a therapist mother, where “it was very much about keeping the surface perfect no matter what was going on underneath,” Lo says.
Lo will mine those vulnerabilities on another album due next year, which she describes as “Phase 2” of Lady Wood. Until then, she’ll promote her latest on December’s Jingle Ball tour and with a headlining North American trek launching Feb. 6 in Seattle. As for whether that leaves any time for relationships, she says, “I’m having fun, but I don’t want to get serious with anyone.”
Her star status hasn’t scared off suitors. “It’s probably not going to be an issue until (a relationship is) actually for real, and then he’ll be like, ‘What if we break up and she’ll just go write a song?’ ” Lo laughs. “But I write beautiful things, too.”
“It’s hard for us to accept who we really are, because there’s so many rules about who we’re supposed to be.”