Lykke Li Reveals New Single ‘Knife In The Heart’
The track is taken from the Swedish artist’s upcoming final album, The Afterparty.
Image Chloé Le Drezen
‘Knife In The Heart’ is the latest taste of Swedish artist Lykke Li’s upcoming sixth and final studio album, The Afterparty, out Friday 8 May via Neon Gold Records/Futures (pre-order/pre-save here).
A soaring mix of droning electornica, pop melodies and shimmering harmonies, Li describes the song as her “brutalist nursery rhyme anthem – the emo girl in me, fully unleashed.”
She adds, “I had my son and his friend sing the choruses because the juxtaposition of their voices against the EBow just created such a powerful sonic landscape, somewhere I’ve never really been before. A world totally collapsing in front of us and all we really have left is our humanity. My dream is to hear a whole football stadium chanting: ‘This Life This Life is a Knife in the Heart’. To me, a pretty accurate description of what it feels like to be alive right now.”
The Afterparty arrives four years after Li’s critically acclaimed EYEEYE and contains just nine tracks running a total of 24 minutes, making it Li’s shortest album.
The record was written in Los Angeles, recorded in Stockholm and executive produced by Lykke Li alongside longtime collaborator Björn Yttling. It features collaborations with a 17-piece string orchestra, with the album cover capturing Li’s face warped by translucent tights. “I find that we’re in an era where everyone is talking about, ‘My higher self’, Fuck that,” Li says. “This is an album dealing with your lower self: your need for revenge, your shame, despair, all of it.”
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Breaking through in 2008 with her acclaimed debut studio album Youth Novels, Lykke Li has gone on to achieve worldwide success, releasing four more critically beloved records – Wounded Rhymes (2011), I Never Learn (2014), So Sad So Sexy (2018) and EYEEYE (2022).
She has established herself as a unique voice in the world of modern pop music, always willing to push the boundaries of what pop is.
Ahead of the release of The Afterparty, fans can catch Li performing at Coachella before a run of shows in South America and Europe, including opening for Robyn on her upcoming Sexistential World Tour.
‘Knife In The Heart’ by Lykke Li is out now. Listen here. The Afterparty is out Friday 8 May via Neon Gold Records/Futures. Pre-order/pre-save here. Check out the album cover and tracklisting below.
The Afterparty
Not Gon Cry
Happy Now
Lucky Again
Famous Last Words
Future Fear
So Happy I Could Die
Sick Of Love
Knife In The Heart
Euphoria
