Okay, I know it’s just now the new year, but still, it’s weird that 2007 was four years ago, isn’t it? You’d think we were getting old or something. Anyway, more to the point, we first heard Ms. Lykke Li back in 2007, which really does not seem that long ago, but whatever you say, Gregorian calendar. Whatever.
Anyway, Li is a Swedish singer and songwriter who was really riding the crest of the internet-born music wave back in ’07, having ‘released’ song after song on the Web well before her actual hard-copy debut in 2008, Youth Novels. Now, of course, that’s pretty much the norm, but back then it was exciting—hearing a this tiny woman’s whispery, child-like voice woven through solid, melodic instrumentation, and not having the slightest idea where any of it was coming from. It made us fans of hers long before her record ever came out.
Now Li’s set to release her sophomore effort, proppa style, at the end of next month or beginning of March (you know how these things are). It’s emotively named Wounded Rhymes and is said to have been produced by Bjorn of Peter Bjorn and John. And she’s keeping to her ‘o7/’08 playbook, releasing somber album cover art here, leaking snippets of tracks there, putting out two-song EP’s—all leading up to her full-length’s release and all via her (very well-done) site. We weren’t totally crazy about the first single released, “Get Some“, but she just released a second one that’s got us a’buzzin’ again and—you guessed it—it’s this week’s Song of the Week. The track’s called “I Follow River” and, whereas it’s now the feel-good dance track we promised last week, it’s mighty tight. In a moody, Swedish, barely twenty sort of way.
As an added bonus, below’s the video from 2007 that provided our introduction to Frau Li and, though she’s grown a lot musically since then, it’s still super charming. We love the heckler in the window who bookends the song. And we have no idea what he’s saying.
Raise your hand if you know Swedish!
