Album of the Week: Tove Lo’s “Sunshine Kitty”
By Lawson Wrigley
Tove Lo returns with her fourth studio album, emerging from the sultry darkness of LPs before and diving into the summer lights of Sunshine Kitty.
Sunshine Kitty is introduced with a voicemail in Italian from someone called Mateo, who ends up reappearing on his own track later in the tracklist. He says, “I heard about Uma. It sucks, but you know, you don’t eat the same dish every night. And by dish, I mean pussy.” This could not be a more on-brand statement for pop’s horniest star.
Tove Lo has never been afraid to sing about sex. Ever since Tove Lo burst into the scene with sad-pop mega-hit ‘Habits (Stay High)’ in 2014, where she sang about ‘picking up daddies on the playground’, to Blue Lips bisexual anthem ‘Bitches’, she has always been one of the most provocative and exciting popstars to emerge post-2010’s. This time around she creates a warmer identity, her Sunshine Kitty, visualised as the yellow lynx on the album cover. It is an ode to her ‘spirit animal’, also seen as a tattoo on her wrist. It is also the meaning of the latter of her name, ‘Lo’ is also the Swedish word for Lynx. But on Sunshine Kitty, Tove embodies this yellow lynx with more so the sonic elements surrounding the LP and less so her lyrics.
Lead single ‘Glad He’s Gone’, is Tove’s answer to Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Boy Problems’. Where Carly sings about breaking up with a boy to save her friendship, Tove celebrates her friend dumping the asshole. In typical Tove fashion, she doesn’t shy away from her crudeness with lyrics such as “Did you go down on his birthday? (Yup) / Did you let him leave a necklace? (Yup)” the latter line, I’ll let you Urban Dictionary. It's an echoing, defiant opening statement that sets the tone for the album. It’s followed by her collaboration with fellow Euro-pop girl Alma (who also just appeared on Lindsay’s Lohan’s new work Xanax), ‘Bad as the Boys’. With familiar tropical beats, it’s a shame the two don’t offer a more exciting narrative than ‘Girls can break hearts just like boys!’.
Other collaborations include the tropical ‘Equally Lost’ with meme-rapper Doja Cat and ‘Jacques’ the Scary-Canary-esque track with Jax Jones, which is fun enough until the “Je m’apelle Jacques/Tove” which comes off as just tacky. A shining standout is when Tove joins forces with our very own pop princess Kylie Minogue for ‘Really Don’t Like U’. Kylie’s disco influence makes itself at home as they trade verses of jealousy and insecurity, but it's the subtle nod to Robyn’s ‘Dancing on My Own’ that makes this collaboration so special.
Most of the album sees her team up with her usual Swedish brother production duo the Struts (not to be confused with the actual Struts), but one of the albums best cuts comes from the frequent Lorde and Taylor Swift collaborator Joel Little (he worked on Pure Heroine and ME! from Taylor’s latest LP). Together they create a raw swelling synth track that lets Tove divulge her insecurities about her partner, she muses ‘I think you're sleeping with me, dreaming 'bout her / I hope I'm mistaken’ before she turns into a moaning auto-tuned synth which is reminiscent of recent works by frequent collaborator Charli XCX. It’s revealing moments like ‘Mistakes’ that are most rewarding on Sunshine Kitty.
With previous works, Tove Lo has written about being f**ked up, sex, cheating and heartbreak. Often deploying icy synth production she has always embodied this ‘Fleabag’ persona. Sunshine Kitty sees her reminisce about her history but ultimately reveal a happier finish. This change is foreseeable within Tove herself as she discussed in an interview with The Fader that she is in a much better mental state, ‘Writing from a good place was hard for me to accept.’ she said. Although Sunshine Kitty is thematically familiar, the production is the clear identifier of this happier change, most evident in the sunny purr of ‘Anywhere U Go’. It’s about Tove following her love to a new city, LA. It’s our happy ever after for Sunshine Kitty and it's the perfect ending after the chaotic whirlwind of the last 5 years of Tove Lo.