Tove Lo launches strong debut EP

People who take a look at my blog frequently, already know that I foresee a great future for Swedish pop artist Tove Lo. I wrote an article about her when she released the great single ‘Out Of Mind’ and she was at the top of my list of most promising acts of 2014. Now is the time for her to prove that she is indeed one of the most exciting new artists out there. Last week, she released her first EP, called Truth Serum. It is an impressive collection of well written catchy pop tunes.

Tove Lo first got noticed on the web when she released her official debut single ‘Habits’. The combination of heartbreaking lyrics and an undeniably strong and catchy melody in the chorus turned out to be gold. ‘Habits’ was absolutely one of the best songs released last year. Tove showed how she was able to turn pure emotion into raw and honest lyrics. The follow up ‘Out Of Mind’ was a little less subtle and somewhat more of an in your face pop moment. The chorus is great and powerful and hits you in the face immediately. A week before the EP release, she launched a third single called ‘Not On Drugs’. Stylistically, this song is quite similar to ‘Out Of Mind’ as it has te same kind of powerful and catchy chorus. The verses however, are also very interesting and melodically captivating. The lyrics are once again great and Tove shows she is not a one hit wonder at all.

Other than these three singles, there are two more tracks on the EP, called ‘Paradise’ and ‘Over’. The first out of these two is her most uptempo moment so far. The rhythm of ‘Paradise’ is somewhat inspired by drum & bass and although it is not her best song to date, it definitely is a welcome change of pace. On ‘Over’ the big, soaring choruses and lyrics full of emotion are back. The chorus mostly consists of repeating the words ‘over’ and ‘sober’, but the best parts of the song are the pre-chorus where she asks herself the question if this is the part where she parts ways with her love interest forever and the middle eight, where she admits she would hate her partner too if he did to her what she just did to him. These very moments show Tove Lo’s biggest strengths: the ability to write great melodies and lyrics and being able to convincingly get across the story with her impressive vocals.