NoSwedish singer Tove Lo released her second album Lady Wood on October 28 of this year. Lady Wood is Lo’s “darker and dreamer” follow-up album to her 2014 debut, Queen of  the Clouds.

Lady Wood consists of two chapters, “Fairy Dust” and “Fire Fade” Lo describes the two chapters as “different kinds of rushes in life”: the high and the comedown. Lo considers Lady Wood as her first half of a two-piece double album.

The album’s lead single “Cool Girl” went number #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Lyrically, the song is about being invited into a non-traditional romance that makes the singer think she’s one of the “cool girls” since she’s interested in an open relationship.

The album starts with an eerie, dark synthpop interlude “Fairy Dust” that kicks off Lo’s high.

In “Influence,” Lo tells her lover not to trust her actions due to her being highly intoxicated, high, and below the influence. The song features rapper, Wiz Khalifa whose verse is unfortunately completely awkward and useless for this song.

“True Disaster” describes the singer’s interest in wanting to have a toxic relationship. “Keep playing with my heart strings faster and faster,” encouraging her lover to abuse her love and affection. “True Disaster” isn’t the perfect pop song due to the lack of originality in Lo’s songwriting but its capable of holding its own on the album.

In the middle of the “Fairy Dust” chapter, Lo starts to hallucinate friends who comfort her and tells them to stay with her to the end and into her dreams in “Imaginary Friend.” Personally, I found “Imaginary Friend” to be the weakest track on the album, lacking the necessary emotional depth that Lo is trying to create.

In the chapter “Fire Fade” Lo describes her turbulent lifestyle of being rich and famous in “Flashes.” Lyrically, she talks about pushing away the fakers, rumors, messing up in front of the camera flashes and worries that her lover will judge her like the rest of world saying, “When I f*** things up in front of camera flashes, what about you?”

Lady Wood exposes Lo’s explicit behavior through dark synthpop interpretations of her drug & alcohol abuse and her sexual needs. The album lacks the excitement and lyrical depth from its predecessor and is far from being a masterpiece. Hopefully Lo will go back to her original roots and deliver a banger for her third album.

Album rating: 3.2/5