TREASURE TO VOTE

On her new album, Lady Wood, Swedish singer/songwriter TOVE LO blends honest lyrics about sex and drugs with the catchiest hooks in pop music

WORDS: GILES HATTERSLEY

I’M STARTING TO WORRY that the Swedish pop star Tove Lo might be my spirit animal. She might be yours, too, actually, especially if you’re prone to almighty benders and picking up men in play parks.

On the upside, the 29-year-old singer/songwriter from Stockholm is also talented, charming, clever and cute as a button when she arrives for our interview in the weird function room of an East London hotel wearing a woolly hat. But do not let adorable knitwear fool you. Tove Lo may be the brightest new female star in the pop firmament, but this is not a woman who simpers or trades in plastic sexuality to score chart positions and online followers. I suspect she’d much rather just have the sex — and then write a smart, perfectly constructed song about it.

Obviously, it’s no surprise that she’s Swedish. From Abba to Max Martin (who she used to work for), her birth nation is famous for its earworm chart toppers. Hers is the country of communal showering and Ace of Base, so naturally her amazing new album is called Lady Wood and features kick-ass lyrics such as ‘Dirty on the inside, damaged goods with nothing but pride’.

She’s also made a pair of films to go with the album, just as Beyoncé did with Lemonade, although the first to be released, Fairy Dust, features her masturbating as the credits roll — a vibe it’s hard to imagine Mrs Carter getting down with. Naturally, it was summarily pulled from YouTube when it was first released, but I recommend a thorough Google to check it out. “I’m so sick of this smut,” was one Daily Mail poster’s response (high praise, indeed).