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Tag: Tove Lo

  • Dom Dolla and Tove Lo’s “Cave”: A Vampire’s Anthem in Time For Spooky Season

    Dom Dolla and Tove Lo’s “Cave”: A Vampire’s Anthem in Time For Spooky Season

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    Still fresh off bringing the heat from her EP of the same name, Tove Lo has nonetheless graced her fandom with yet another danceable ditty. This time, one that’s seasonally appropriate—a.k.a. “spooky.” After all, what could be more ominous than a cave (especially at night)? Except, in this instance, the word refers to “succumbing.” In other words, “caving in” to something…or, more precisely, someone.

    With the help of DJ and producer Dom Dolla, the frenetic backbeat of the song lends urgency to Tove’s simultaneous resistance to and gravitational pull toward the object of her affection. And to establish the tone for the moody ambience of the single, Dom Dolla and Tove set their video, directed by Grant Spanier, in the darkness of some creepy woods (but then, all woods are creepy, whether it’s dark or not). Driving through them at exactly 3:33 a.m.—because the time 6:66 doesn’t exist—a shot of Tove coolly wearing her sunglasses at night in the front seat is the first indication that this is a vampire story. That and, well, bats live in caves, so the song title is more than a slight “Easter egg.”

    As for the driver, Dom, he needs no sunglasses, wearing only his baseball hat as a shield for his eyes from the night. It’s then that Tove opens the track with the ethereal, hyper-romantic verse, “I’ve got this hunger/Are you alone?/Make me feel better/Fuck to our song/I can feel my walls coming down/Late at night when I fade/You can cut me deep with a line/Like a cold sharp blade.” While it might initially be presumed that the pair is each already a vampire on the prowl, we soon see there’s more to the narrative than that.

    So it is that, jostling around in what Tove calls a “buggy thing,” the two roll up to what looks like an abandoned warehouse where an underground rave is in progress. Albeit one that is in rather scant attendance. Even so, the red lasers flitting around the room almost make up for the fact that this is a vampire rave, as the attendees’ pointy ears immediately indicate (less cliché than a baring of fangs, to be sure). It is at this moment that Tove and Dom pull out their crossbows—suggesting they’re vampire hunters and not yet vampires (maybe this is why Tove is dressed like she got inspired by The Matrix)—and aim to kill…or at least tranquilize.

    Alas, their dart is easily caught by one of the vampires, prompting the two to look at one another in horror as the subtitle “run.” shows up at the bottom of the screen for a touch of silent movie cachet (after all, Nosferatu is one of the most classic silent and vampire movies of all time).

    Having poked the bear—or rather, vampire—Dom and Tove flee the scene back into the woods, with many subsequent shots channeling The Blair Witch Project thanks to unsteady handheld camera work and plenty of scenes done in “night shot” mode. An overhead shot with the camera going into the woods as though it’s a 3D model also lends an eerie “this is a simulation” quality to the narrative.

    But if it is, it doesn’t make it any less daunting/frightening for Dom and Tove to be “turned.” To have to “cave” to their pursuers by eventually becoming one of them. Hence lyrics like, “I can feel my walls coming down/Late at night I forget/You can make me weak with a line” and “I know all your tricks and you lick your lips ‘cause you know I’m gonna cave/I’m gonna cave/You pull me closer I feel your skin/Memories wash over, I let you in.”

    But not without a fight as Dom and Tove run through the woods during Spanier’s chaotic, intercut scenes of the woods appearing as though turned upside down while he focuses in on the male vampire who then gets the subtitle that warns them, “Game over.” His cohorts also join in pursuit of the duo through trees punctuated by giant cobwebs—as though their method for ensnaring humans is decidedly spidery.

    In the end, we can see that Dom and Tove have, indeed, caved. This indicated by the flashing of vampire fangs (it was bound to happen sooner or later). And also, in Tove’s case, red eyes. The final scene then shows them hanging upside down in what appears to be the very same abandoned warehouse where they first tried to overtake the vampire ravers. But hey, as it is said: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” In other words, surrender Dorothy. Cave.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Kylie, Bebe and Tove Offer Up A Stately Experience for the “My Oh My” Video

    Kylie, Bebe and Tove Offer Up A Stately Experience for the “My Oh My” Video

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    For those who thought Kylie Minogue, Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo might leave the imagery for the “My Oh My” single solely at their performance together for BST Hyde Park earlier this summer, the trio hasn’t disappointed, bringing fans a right proper video directed by Charlie Di Placido. Despite the director’s Italian last name, the trio has kept it strictly British by opting to film the stately visual accompaniment to the song at Syon House in Brentford.

    The West London residence, inhabited by the Duke of Northumberland, appeared to have no qualms about the “Saltburn effect” on the estate. Not, as some naysayers might suggest, because they don’t have faith in the song’s ability to “catch on” (even though it should be way more revered than it currently is), but because the mansion has already been a long-standing haven for filming anyway (most recently, Bridgerton counted itself among other British-oriented pop culture staples, such as Gosford Park and Belgravia, taken with the charm of the mansion). Besides, if Guy Ritchie’s The Gentleman taught people anything, it’s that dukes and other “lowlier-than-a-prince” title holders are always strapped for liquid cash, burdened by the inconvenience of their only valuable assets being in the form of property. So why not make a fast pound off said property (in a way that doesn’t involve the manufacture of cannabis)? Especially for a video like this.   

    Opening with Minogue positioned on a marble “bed” (like some sort of Greek goddess) in front of the famous Apollo Belvedere sculpture, an entourage of dancers surrounds her, all momentarily in “frozen” pose” before they start moving their arms and then their torsos to indicate they’re hardly just more statues who also happen to be at Minogue’s side. As a matter of fact, the dancers stand out not only for their signature movements, but because they’re all dressed in different costumes, which is usually something unheard of in most music videos.

    As the song bursts out into the chorus, Di Placido cuts to Minogue and the dancers in another part of the mansion dancing and serving catwalk energy before Rexha’s moment to shine arrives. She, too, is given her own regal “entrance” opportunity, framed by Di Placido with her arm resting against an elaborate column in yet another decadent room. Outfitted in a black evening gown with a plunging neckline and a slit at the thigh (in contrast to Minogue’s more Grecian gold number), Rexha preens for the camera—almost as though to mimic her version of what one of these statues in the palatial residence might do if they actually came to life—while delivering her verse. The one that goes, “Rush of hands, lingering looks/My name in your mouth, that was all it took/Now, yesterday’s light years away/You came in here, now, there’s no goin’ back.” She then adds, “When you asked, ‘What’s your name? Let me know’/I’m Bebe, I’m a Virgo/‘What’s your drink? Let me buy’/You had me when you said, ‘Hi’/Hi.”

    The zodiac-centric content of the song might have led some listeners to believe there would be more Gemini/Virgo/Scorpio tropes and/or symbols at play, but, instead, Di Placido places each singer within one of the artful and poetic settings of Syon House. While Minogue gets the most time situated within the various iconic rooms of the space (namely, the conservatory), her presence is actually the most memorable because of the way in which the dancers that encircle her synchronize their choreography while simultaneously managing to look entirely unique and separate from one another.

    Though perhaps not as unique as Tove Lo, whose entrance into the fray of this musical narrative is more special than Rexha’s or even Minogue’s. To introduce her part of the song, one of the dancers walks from a hallway and into a room next to a staircase where Tove is perched nearby on a pedestal, her hairstyle courtesy of a brown (and crimped!) Lady Godiva-length wig that complements her own riff on Greek goddess-chic.

    “Striking a pose” (yes, Madonna-style) like the women who came before her in this video, Tove “unfreezes” soon enough to relish her own spotlight—working the staircase as she flexes with her Scorpio-touting verse. The trio then converges upon one another in the same room where Minogue initially started out, the Apollo Belvedere sculpture now standing over all three of them.

    The dancers, meanwhile, continue to strut around them before this scene becomes intercut with one of Minogue (sans her two “backup singers”) standing/dancing in a massive hallway where a long line of dancers flanks her on either side. This is the image that concludes the video, with Minogue “breaking character” after a few “frozen pose” seconds to bop around wildly, laughing at herself as she does so.

    All in all, it signals that Duchess Minogue and her “ladies in waiting” would be perfectly at home on a regular basis in this imperial abode. The Duke of Northumberland, therefore, might want to change his locks. My oh my, indeed.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Zodiac Adherents Rejoice: A Gemini, A Virgo and A Scorpio Come Together for “My Oh My”

    Zodiac Adherents Rejoice: A Gemini, A Virgo and A Scorpio Come Together for “My Oh My”

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    Opening with the sort of “La-la, la-la, la-la, la-la-la-la/La-la, la-la-la” that Kylie Minogue is known for (obviously on 2001’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”), “My Oh My,” her first single of 2024 in honor of her headlining performance at BST Hyde Park, also mimics another 00s-era track: ATC’s “Around the World (La La La La La).” Which makes sense considering how Y2K-inspired “My Oh My” is with its particular kind of pulsing dance rhythm. Of course, apart from that, the song bears a sound that is unmistakably Tove Lo’s, who features on the track along with Bebe Rexha.

    Tove, who co-wrote the single with Ina Wroldsen and Steve Mac (also the producer) centers the theme of “My Oh My” on the zodiac, which is unsurprising considering her Scorpio pride. This most recently made apparent on the cover of 2022’s Dirt Femme, on which she sports a custom-made scorpion tail by Chris Habana in honor of her sign’s emblem. So if anyone knows a little something about asking, “What’s your name? What’s your sign?” (questions that appear on the song), it’s her…not to mention Notorious B.I.G. on “Big Poppa.”

    But Tove is generous enough to let Minogue sing those lines in the first rendition of the pre-chorus, cooing, “When you asked, ‘What’s your name? What’s your sign?’/I’m Kylie, it’s Gemini/‘What’s your drink?/Let me buy’/You had me when you said, ‘Hi’/Hi.” As is to be expected, both Tove and Bebe get to perform their take on that pre-chorus by subbing in their own names and signs: Scorpio and Virgo, respectively. Naturally, Tove makes her version of the verse extra Scorpio-y by saying, “Always love a dark room with somebody to talk to/But never ever met someone like you/Hey, hello, I am To-Tove Lo/I’m a, I’m a Scorpio/Yeah, the sexy jealous kind/You had me when you said, ‘Hi’/Hi.” And yes, that last part is very much a “riff” (read: an almost word-for-word repurposing) on the signature line from Jerry Maguire, delivered by Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) when she tells Jerry (Tom Cruise), “You had me at hello.”

    For hopelessly romantic women like the ones in this trio, that statement even holds true for someone they just encountered. After all, like Lana said, “When you know you know.” And sometimes, having another (free) drink helps to really know for sure—in vino (or whatever other alcoholic preference) veritas, and all that.

    As for the seamless coalescing of these three elements in the zodiac, this Air/Water/Earth combo is undoubtedly what lends the track its dreamy, ethereal quality (if a Fire sign had been involved, it would have just been a hot mess). One that is emphasized by the single’s starry, Y2K meets psychedelia-inspired aesthetic. A look that certainly doesn’t bend to Fire’s overall vibe.

    As for the lush, “love at first sight” (also a Minogue song title) motif of the single, in certain respects, the lyrical content also reminds one of Minogue’s 2023 hit, “Padam Padam.” For, in the same way that Minogue feels a shift in the very beat of her heart (and his) upon encountering this person (i.e., “Padam, padam, I hear it and I know/Padam, padam, I know you wanna take me home/Padam, and take off all my clothes/Padam, padam, when your hеart goes ‘padam’”), so, too, does she feel a shift here, marveling, “Yesterday was just a day/I didn’t know my life was gonna change/Yesterday, light-years away/You came in here, now, nothin’ is the same.” Needless to say, Minogue’s use of the word “light-year” seems deliberate in that she has a 2000 album called Light Years. And while some have failed to see that Minogue, Tove and Rexha have long been light-years ahead of the pop curve, others have known it all along—and can therefore understand the poetic, synergistic nature of this group of women “aligning” to sing such a track. One that is all about a sense of “destiny,” how something can be “kismet.”

    So it is that, for Rexha’s part, she adds, “Rush of hands, lingering looks/My name in your mouth, that was all it took/Now, yesterday’s light-years away/You came in here, now, there’s no goin’ back.” To play up the feeling of dizzying, twitterpated lovestruckness, the chorus replicates such sentiments with Minogue’s “la-la” signature being incorporated into the lyrics, “La-la, la-la, I’m like, ‘Oh my, oh my’/La-la, la-la, you keep me up at night/La-la, la-la, I’m feelin’ fireflies/La-la, la-la-la, oh my, oh my.”

    While the song title itself might be slightly played, with both Camila Cabello and Ava Max also recently having a single called this (though, of course, Aqua has the true monopoly on it with their 1997 song of the same name from Aquarium), Minogue, Rexha and Tove’s seamless, wool-gathering harmony is what makes this one stand apart. That, and its acknowledgement of just how important zodiac signs are to romantic chemistry.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Hot in Herre: Tove Lo and SG Lewis Unsurprisingly Bring the Heat 

    Hot in Herre: Tove Lo and SG Lewis Unsurprisingly Bring the Heat 

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    Like many LGBTQIA+ allies, Tove Lo wasn’t about to let the month of June pass without honoring Pride in some way. So she decided to do what she does best: make the kind of music you can sweat to. Hence, the title of her new four-track EP: Heat (though some will always associate that with the 1995 Michael Mann movie of the same name). That moniker, too, can also bear an alternate political meaning in terms of referring to climate change. After all, we’ll all be sweating our tits off regardless of whether we’re dancing or not once the Earth heats up another two-ish degrees. 

    In any case, Tove wastes no time in getting asses on the dance floor as she and Lewis kick things off with the eponymous “Heat,” for which there is an accompanying music video directed by David Wilson. The video, like the rest of the album, is intended to be what Tove called “an ode to queer dance floors around the world.” As such, the concept centers on Tove Lo working late ‘cause she’s a singer, taking center stage at a bondage-friendly (as Tove exhibits with her very specific necklace) nightclub while the pulsing, 90s-inspired dance rhythm gets the crowd even hotter and sweatier than they already are. Things become sexual real quick (Tove is a Scorpio, after all) as bodies and mouths collide against each other, with Tove as their sex-positive satyr. With her confident lyrics, “I know you want me, obviously/I already know you can’t take the heat/You’re staring at me, staring is free/I already know you can’t take the heat [again, so global warming-coded],” she urges them to take chances they might not ordinarily dare to in the outside world. A world that can hardly be considered a “safe space.” 

    In this Tove Lo-anointed club, however, everyone is free—accented by the braggadocio of Tove also flexing, “Want my body, but my body’s much too much for your touch/Think you’re ready?/You’re not ready for the power of love/Want my body, but my body’s got too lush for your stuff/I already know you can’t take the heat.” And yet, patrons of the club seem to have no trouble “taking the heat” of each other as additional “performers” bum-rush the stage like it’s an impromptu vogue ball. 

    Tits and asses out, the party doesn’t seem likely to stop until well into the early hours of the morning. And when the video concludes with a new addition to the club (Tove Lo in a wig), it’s clear their “lost lamb” vibe is about to be jettisoned in favor of joining these lions of lasciviousness. Let’s just say it leaves things on a cliffhanger, opening up the potential for other videos that will arise out of this EP. 

    In the spirit of having the freedom to explore as many sexual avenues as possible, the sentiment of “Let Me Go Oh Oh” is one that insists on being allowed that kind of liberty if the person one is in a relationship (or even just an early flirtation) with isn’t truly committed. In Tove’s case, the stage of the relationship is merely in the flirtation “era.” So it is that she demands, “Oh, don’t treat me cold, I know that you’re sweet on me/Want you to be mine, but don’t waste my time.” It seems that this “boy,” however, is only comfortable expressing his feelings toward Tove within the safe confines of a dark dance floor (“Rush to my heart when we kiss in the dark all night”). This, too, speaks to the queer canon, with many LGBTQIA+ folks still conditioned to not feel safe enough to express physical signs of their love in a public, heteronormative space. But with the help of Lewis’ throbbing beat and Tove’s looming threat, “Give me your love or let me go, oh-oh,” it could very well be time for this scared little boy to come out into the light. 

    Because, if not, well, Tove has plenty of other options. This much is made clear as the pace ramps up even more on “Busy Girl.” With its stabbing, assaulting rhythm that matches the self-vaunting nature of the lyrics, Tove wastes no time in asserting, “Every second, minute, hour/I am good at what I do/Bitch, I’m better than you/I got brains, I got body/Both parts a little naughty.” Sure to be a drag anthem, Tove also channels equal parts sex worker and pre-fame Madonna in New York as she declares, “I push, I work, I’m such a busy girl/I’m lush [that word again]/I’m first/I get what I deserve.” And what Tove obviously feels she deserves, if this record is anything to go by, is an orgasm. But if she can’t quite achieve one, at least she can help others succeed in that area by making an album such as this. And when she says, “I’m good at what I do,” listeners know she’s referring not to giving head, but to making people come together on the dance floor. As she puts it, “Expert in my field, I can cut a deal/Experience is key, you wanna be like me.” 

    But for many, the desire to be like Tove will remain just that. So it’s fitting that she should conclude the all-too-brief record with a track called, what else, “Desire.” For, in many ways, that’s what being on the dance floor is all about. Moving one’s body to attract and allure the object of their desire, while themselves also becoming one. The longest of the four bops on Heat, it drips with yearning to a danceable beat (one that, at times, sounds like it’s in the same intonation as Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s “Señorita), with Tove Lo unabashedly admitting, “All I want, it is one night with you/You are my desire/Every time we kiss, I can’t deny it/Tell me do you feel the way I do?” 

    Even if they don’t, surely they can pretend for just one night. For that’s all anyone really has in this life, especially when they’re so often limited by the constraints of the day. Perhaps Tove Lo phrases that reality best when she pronounces on “Desire,” “I just need to let it out and dance till my body’s free.” Because, with the government constantly trying to put limitations on it, it’s no wonder people feel obliged to let it loose in the dark. With Heat, it becomes that much easier to do so.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Your Weekend Playlist: New Music To Listen To This Friday

    Your Weekend Playlist: New Music To Listen To This Friday

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    How are we halfway through June already? It actually seems illegal how fast the summer passes by, there’s so much I want to accomplish in no time whatsoever. But enough about me, the main point here is that we’re looking at the weekend once again.

    Whether this was the best or worst week of your life, there’s one thing we can all agree on: music will help any situation. Yes, there’s a song out there that will make you forget about everything else in life while it’s playing…you just have to find it.

    And you may be wondering: yeah, but why do you care? Well, dear reader, you’ve actually stumbled upon the place for new music released today. Every Friday, hundreds of new songs are released…and sure, you can comb through every New Music Friday playlist curated on your Spotify or Apple Music. But wouldn’t it be easier if one place made a playlist with the best-of-the-best on it?

    Yes. It would. And that’s why we’re all here: I make a weekly playlist with the best new songs released so you don’t have to do all that aimless searching and listening on your own. It’s okay to be lazy when you’re listening to my Weekend Playlists!

    This week, we have a bunch of fresh new tracks that can easily get you through the weekend. Without further ado, let’s get listening!

    R3HAB, Don Diablo, NEEKA- “Disco Marathon” 

    Welcome back to the 70’s…because it’s a disco summer! The EDM/house world is fully leaning into the club disco track, which is why R3HAB, Don Diablo, and NEEKA teamed up for “Disco Marathon.” If you want a feel good track that gets you and your friends dancing, this is a great start to your playlist.

    “Disco Marathon” is captivating from the very start- a sonic shift for both R3HAB and Don Diablo that blends their sounds perfectly.

    Ashton Irwin- “Straight To Your Heart” 

    We recently got the chance to sit down with Ashton ahead of his sophomore solo album release, Blood on the Drums. After speaking a bit about “Straight To Your Heart” I learned that Ashton was really inspired by the bands of the 80’s who leaned heavily into synths. Now, as he releases the first part of Blood on the Drums, “Straight To Your Heart” is here for the world.

    It’s a testament to his prowess as a songwriter and singer, a multi-instrumentalist who has years’ experience under his belt. “Straight To Your Heart” is pure fun all the way through.

    Jelly Roll- “I Am Not Okay” 

    Just in time for Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, Jelly Roll releases “I Am Not Okay”- an introspective track about needing help but not wanting to talk about it. With lyrics like “I woke up today/I almost stayed in bed/Had the devil on my back”, it’s a prevalent reminder that although we all have our dark moments, have have to keep going.

    Jelly Roll has been a longtime advocate for mental health awareness through his music, and his mission continues by spreading the word in “I Am Not Okay.”

    Benjamin Ingrosso- “Look Who’s Laughing Now”

    Benjamin Ingrosso’s vocal ability shines through in his new single, “Look Who’s Laughing Now.” The song almost was made for live performances, with big sounds building to a crescendo throughout the entire song. It’s an easy listen, both uplifting and confident all in one. Ingrosso says,

    “Look who’s laughing now is about announcing to yourself and the world you can be whoever you want to be in all of your imperfections and still have the best time of your life and come out winning.”

    Tove Lo, SG Lewis- “HEAT”

    What makes a collaboration successful is the ability for both artists to blend their sounds in a way that makes sense, that makes people want to hear more from them. It doesn’t work every time, but with Tove Lo and SG Lewis, the four tracks that make their EP, HEAT, it works tremendously. The energy is palpable throughout each and every song, and you never want it to end.

    The four tracks- title track “HEAT”, “Let me go OH OH”, “Busy Girl”, and “Desire”- are equally exciting across the board. They find a way to combine sex appeal with synths and bass, and then you add in Tove Lo’s crooning vocals and you have yourself a hit collection of songs.

    Listen to our playlist on Spotify! 

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    Jai Phillips

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  • Nelly Furtado, Tove Lo and SG Lewis Want You To Know That It Hurts So Good When “Love Bites”

    Nelly Furtado, Tove Lo and SG Lewis Want You To Know That It Hurts So Good When “Love Bites”

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    Of all the collaborative duos one might have anticipated to come together in 2024, Nelly Furtado and Tove Lo probably weren’t on anyone’s bingo card. Sure, SG Lewis is in the mix too, but he often is whenever Tove Lo appears (hear: Dirt Femme’s “Call On Me” and “Pineapple Slice”). As for Furtado, “Love Bites” marks the first single from her forthcoming seventh album, which is promised to have plenty of “club bangers.” It would seem “Love Bites” is among them, with an opening beat that immediately reels the listener in as Tove Lo urges, “Go ahead, go ahead now.” And with that instruction, we’re off on an escapist journey. 

    Escapism is, in fact, the keyword for Furtado right now, for, as she explained of creating new music this time around, “I realized how much people like to dance and escape to my music. It’s the healthiest vice you can have, and I love the opportunity to write music that lets people escape more than anything.” “Love Bites” is no exception to Furtado’s rule. And in the accompanying “visualizer” (which looks like a pretty legit music video that even has a director—Gemma Warren—attached…but who knows, maybe they’ll make a “real” one later), Nelly and Tove appear at ease against a vibrant red backdrop as they lounge on a couch and the top of a car, respectively, before then standing up in the next scenes (these ones contrasted by black backdrops) to bump and grind against each other. 

    Oozing with sensuality, Furtado delivers the first verse, “​​And I can tell it from your mouth that you’re/Real good at working with your mouth and you’re/Not really tryna fuck with my mind and/Good at pretending that you could be mine.” Because, as Dua Lipa points out on Radical Optimism’s “Illusion,” “I really like the way you’re movin’/Yeah, I just wanna dance with the illusion.” In other words, it’s easier to be attracted to the, let’s say, two-dimensional persona presented by someone you initially encounter on a dance floor than it is to be by whoever they really are behind that false projection. Thus, as Lewis ramps up the beat, it reaches its climaxing crescendo when Tove Lo sings the chorus, “I want your body all mine/Boy, you’re looking too fine/The way your love bites/Got me dreamin’ ‘bout that/Time left your mark on my mind/Give me more of that kind/The way your love bites/Got me dreamin’ ’bout ‘cha.” Yes, it’s definitely the perfect song to soundtrack any sexually-charged vampire movie. 

    As for the phrasing of “about you” into “‘bout ‘cha,” well, it speaks perhaps to Furtado’s continued devotion to 00s musical and language sensibilities. After all, one can’t think of “‘cha” without tying it to The Pussycat Dolls 2004 hit, “Don’t Cha.” As for Furtado’s own musical evolution since her album supremacy (Whoa, Nelly!, Folklore [that’s right, Furtado named her album that before Taylor] and Loose) in the early and mid-00s, it’s clear she’s waited a bit longer this time to release another record because she wants to return to the eclectic, pulsing sounds that made her stand out from the herd in the first place. Tove and SG are the perfect pair to help reintroduce her to a new decade (with Furtado’s last album, The Ride, released in 2017), complementing her naturally dance-oriented style with their own more direct “Eurodance” one. 

    Furtado lends more depth to the average “sweaty dance track,” however, with her unique brand of lyricism continuing in the second verse, “And I can tell it from the signs you show/That you just wanna put me on your wall/So we gonna keep riding this whole wave/Because I know it’s written on each page/Help me, I can’t tame me, you can try/Connect me with your eyes/Can’t even hold me too tight.” This idea of being out of control and untameable yet also wanting someone who will make it seem worthwhile to be “tamed” matches the musical dichotomies presented in the single as well. Elsewhere, Furtado channels “Justify My Love” imagery and sensuality by demanding, “Call me/Taste me/Want me/Need me” as Tove Lo chants, “Go ahead, go ahead now” in between each command.

    The visuals intensify (including Tove Lo writhing more bombastically on the floors of the various backdrops) as the song continues—which, again, gives it a more outright music video feel as opposed to just a “visualizer” one. Complete with Tove Lo and Furtado styled in clothes that can best be described as futuristic yet sophisticated “clubwear.” In short, they’re grown enough now not to be fuckin’ with cheap fare of the Forever 21 variety. And yet, “Love Bites” is the kind of track designed to prove that just because a woman grows older, it doesn’t mean her club-connected spirit dies out. Quite the contrary, as a matter of fact. Kylie Minogue also proved that recently with “Padam Padam,” a song that features lyrics that, once upon a time, no fifty-something woman would have been “allowed” to sing without being laughed at mercilessly (and yes, singers like Minogue and Furtado have Madonna to thank for enduring the most vitriol as she blazed a trail for them by continuing to say such things well past the “accepted period” of her youth). 

    As “Love Bites” comes to a close, Furtado brings it back to the 00s again by declaring the names of the featured artists, sensually telling us, “SG Lewis” before Tove Lo delivers an “oh-oh-oh” type utterance that provides the perfect lead-in for Furtado to then say, “Tove Lo.” It smacks of what Missy Elliott did for the end of 2001’s “Lady Marmalade.” Indeed, Elliott came out of the woodwork to comment favorably on Furtado’s live performance of “Get Ur Freak On” for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. It wasn’t totally random, though—Furtado jumped on a remix of “Get Ur Freak On” when it was initially released. Thus, to bring it back now seemed an exercise in reminding people of her diverse musical prowess. Elliott tended to agree, praising, “Those who remember this know this remix was fye. Still izzzzzz. You did dat @NellyFurtado.” With “Love Bites,” she’s also brought a new kind of “fye” to the 2020s that’s been sorely lacking.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • From “Really Don’t Like U” to “I Like U”: The Latest Tove Lo Song Is A Declaration of Love at First Sight

    From “Really Don’t Like U” to “I Like U”: The Latest Tove Lo Song Is A Declaration of Love at First Sight

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    It seems that, when it comes to expressing like versus dislike, Tove Lo has a much easier time conveying the latter emotion for women. That is, if her 2019 single with Kylie Minogue, “Really Don’t Like U” (from Sunshine Kitty) is anything to go by. With “I Like U,” a song that Tove Lo has been performing of late on her Dirt Femme Tour, her sentiments for a “special man” (her husband, one assumes) are instead warm and fuzzy. As Tove Lo puts it, “I’m telling the story of my thoughts the first time I saw the love of my life. They’re not clean but at least I never said any of them out loud.” Well, she is now—and she’s decided to do so in yet another 00s-inspired fashion after already paying homage to the decade with the song and Anna Himma-directed video, “2 Die 4.”

    The video for “I Like U” is more minimalistic (especially compared to the one she did before this for “Borderline,” the sequel to “No One Dies From Love”), but still has plenty of “gritty 00s” flavor…mainly because there’s absolutely no use of phones, and it’s difficult to imagine someone being in a karaoke bar in the present day without using one to film their “performance.” As for the sound of the song itself, Tove remarked, “I wanted to make another dance song that sonically felt like a nod to 90s and Y2K dance music.” With this in mind, the song builds slowly to its rhythmic house-y backing beat, courtesy of TimFromTheHouse, who Tove Lo called out as her co-writer/producer by noting, “…we worked on it for months in between tours to figure the perfect arrangement. It’s not the usual pop structure but it’s perfect for this song, I think.”

    And it really is, particularly as Tove sets the tone for her burning desire with the opening verse, “I’ma tell you the truth now/‘Cause I’m too high to lie/I wish I was your girlfriend/Is she with you tonight?/You say, ‘Sorry, I’m taken’/Walk away with a smile/I know I’m not mistaken/You’re the love of my life.” Similar to fellow Dirt Femme single “True Romance” in sentiment and timbre, Tove wants the rest of the world to melt away—including his current girlfriend—so that she can be with this person in blissful, sex-drenched peace. As the backbeat builds to its crescendo and Tove offers the simple admission, “La-la-like you, I la-la-la-like you/La-la-like you,” it sounds reminiscent of ATC singing, “Just la la la la la, it’s all around the world/La la la la la, la la la la la la la.” And yes, Tove is obviously a proponent of bringing back this exact form of early 00s Eurodance.

    Reteaming with Moni Haworth (who also directed Tove’s videos for “Sweettalk My Heart” and “Bikini Porn”) for the video, the Swedish songstress finds herself roaming through the halls of an empty Koreatown karaoke bar (L.A.’s Koreatown, to be clear). Namely, Pharaoh. Wearing a trippy eye mask that makes her look like an anime character come to life, Tove wanders the halls and dances seductively for no one in the elevator before finding herself in one of the karaoke rooms singing along to the lyrics of her own song. That she’s alone throughout the video feels like a pointed choice in terms of highlighting that this love is not necessarily immediately reciprocated. In fact, maybe it’s not reciprocated at all and this is actually all just coming from the perspective of an erotomaniac. A sign urging her to “Have a fabulous time!” seems to be taken to heart as she goes apeshit on the mic, does shots by herself, briefly slumps over in the booth, dances around manically and generally looks like she’s loosely recreating that first episode of The Twilight Zone, “Where Is Everybody?,” with a greater sense of chill than the character who started to lose his shit over the realization that no one was around (granted, there are signs of some errant Pharaoh employees at one moment in the video). He was totally alone.

    Perhaps Tove doesn’t really care about being alone because the only person she wants to be with is the one she can’t (yet) have. Ergo her later lyrics, “I run into you everywhere/But you push me away/Does it mean you’re still with her?/She convinced you to stay?” If she did, cue the lyrics to “Really Don’t Like U” during which Tove says to the “other woman,” “Thought I was done feeling sorry/Knew he’d be here with somebody/Why did it have to be you?/I know I’ve got no right to, I know I’ve got no right to/Really, I just don’t like you,” adding, “None of it is your fault/And when I hate on you, I’m breaking the code/But you got him, I don’t, I don’t/Hard to be fair to you when I got my heart broke.” And yet, in “I Like U,” Tove is coming from the vantage point of becoming the “other woman” herself, lying in wait for this love of hers to realize that she’s the one. Tove’s overt comedown-from-euphoria periods in the karaoke bar, however, indicate that maybe she’s not entirely sure things are going to work out just because she wants them to.

    Her longing is captured, at various moments, through the CCTV cameras of Pharaoh. Back in front of the screen that’s parading her lyrics, she sits in the booth and bounces around frenetically as though wanting to jump out of her skin while singing, “I cannot take it.” And it really seems like she can’t—she needs this person to be with her now. As she warns him, “You make it hard/I guess I respect that/Don’t take too long/I’ve been waitin’ all night.” And she clearly has, as we see her exit Pharaoh in the hours of dawn when the moon starts to fade out.

    Soon, she’s wandering the unruly hills of L.A., where she happens upon an ostensibly wild dog (a.k.a. her own, Peggy) who regards like she’s a bit loca (though is still kind enough to sit down next to her) while she concludes the song with the outro, “I don’t know, but/Sometimes, when you find love/The wrong thing is right/It might be hard/But worth the fight/Real love.” Lately, Taylor Swift seems to be in agreement…about Matty Healy.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Symphorophiliac Is the New Black: Tove Lo Takes J. G. Ballard’s Crash to A Different Level in “Borderline”

    Symphorophiliac Is the New Black: Tove Lo Takes J. G. Ballard’s Crash to A Different Level in “Borderline”

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    When last we left Tove Lo’s jilted robot lover in the Alaska-directed video for Dirt Femme’s second single, “No One Dies From Love,” Annie 3000 had been cast aside in favor of a newer model (tale as old as time). Specifically, for a more “lifelike” robot named Eva. Annie, who just spent the entirety of the video making a plethora of memories with Tove as her servile robo-lover, never would have imagined she could be tossed out so easily for someone (or something) else. For, as it turns out, the key line in the chorus, “No one dies from love/Guess I’ll be the first” is ultimately from Annie’s perspective, not Tove’s. And, upon seeing her gush over how “real” Eva is, Annie feels the unspoken sting of not being “real enough” for Tove by ripping her “heart” (located at the center of her chest) out in response as the deluge of memories they shared plays back in a painful montage before Annie goes up in flames (foreshadowing for how things will also transpire in “Borderline,” set to appear on the deluxe edition of Dirt Femme).

    The final scene of the video, however, assures us that it’s just as the song says, “No one dies from love.” Instead, one gets repurposed into another useful thing: being a crash test dummy. For this is Annie’s new fate in the aftermath of having her heart broken by Tove. Hence, the state we find her in (side note: her true robot identity isn’t revealed for certain until the last frame) throughout the sequel to “No One Dies From Love”: “Borderline” (always a brave title choice when considering Madonna’s 1983 single of the same name has the monopoly on that word, try as Ariana Grande, Tame Impala, and now, Tove Lo might to make it their own). Co-written with fellow pop powerhouse Dua Lipa around the time Future Nostalgia was being created, Tove was certain to mention that this “is a song about being on the edge of love. The drama you cause inside yourself and with another person if you feel insecure.” To be sure, Annie, by this point, is nothing if not insecure. Though still confident enough to know that she deserves her revenge (as Budd [Michael Madsen] says of Beatrix Kiddo [Uma Thurman] in Kill Bill). And how she gets it is very elaborate indeed.

    This time directed by Nogari, the video starts at the finale, with a vehicle up in flames. To this end, it’s no coincidence that J. G. Ballard’s Crash has seeped into the cultural consciousness of late by way of mainstream pop culture. This includes, most notably, Charli XCX (a regular Tove Lo collaborator) naming her most recent album Crash and featuring herself on the cover all bloodied and perched on the hood of a car (in a bikini, of course) with a cracked windshield—presumably because she deliberately threw herself in front of it. You know, just to feel something and all that jazz in our climate of total dissociation and sociopathy. Which is why an obsession with all-consuming, passion-burning love remains at a premium, particularly in narrative depictions. And when we can’t get something like that from an actual human in the way that we want it, perhaps it’s bound to transfer to…objects. Especially technologically-oriented ones.

    Enter technosexuality. But its precursor was, “naturally,” mechanophilia. For the car was the first major modern technological advancement of the post-Industrial age. Suddenly it was mother, father, sister, brother to so many. Offering shelter and comfort for any occasion: going to the movies, making out, having sex, sleeping, eating…maybe even going to the bathroom (a.k.a. pissing in a cup). Ballard’s tale of mechanosexuals-turned-symphorophiliacs (someone sexually aroused by accidents and disasters, e.g. car crashes) is a dark look at the effects the modern age has had on humankind, and its increasing inability to relate to its own flesh-and-blood ilk. Preferring instead the “no muss, no fuss” coldness of a machine. This, needless to say, also including robots. As Zadie Smith would assess of the novel in a 2014 article for The Guardian, “Crash is an existential book about how everybody uses everything. How everything uses everybody.” That reality has only amplified in the decade since the piece was initially published, not to mention the many decades since Crash was first released.

    One might even say Annie has become the new “nightmare angel of the expressways” in lieu of Crash’s Dr. Robert Vaughan. This much is made clear as we watch her kidnap Tove Lo, who we see in the back of the trunk after Annie has gone through the ringer in terms of being constructed into the perfect crash test dummy that can withstand all manner of impacts (hear the lyrics: “I like to my feel my bones when they crash into my heart/I like the taste of blood when you’re tearin’ me apart)—except unrequited love-oriented ones. It doesn’t take long for Tove to come around to playing along with Annie’s idea of a Thelma and Louise-inspired road trip, possibly because she’s not fully aware it actually is Annie. Her openness to doing whatever only augments after Annie serves her a handy tab of acid that also looks very much like a computer chip (with this in mind, Tove ostensibly speaks from Annie’s viewpoint when she sings, “I like to push it to the edge/As long as you say you’re mine/Borderline”).

    Cut to Tove Lo dancing sensually amid the wreckage of various vehicle parts as she trips blithely in the junkyard not just of “no longer useful” machinery, but also love itself. In another scene, Tove and Annie, in her crash test dummy guise, are backlit by a pair of headlights as Tove licks and kisses the non-person with the sort of tripped-out gusto that only LSD can incite. As Tove puts it in her lyrics, “Lost in the magic with you/A pretty disguise from the truth/Truth is ugly, don’t open your eyes/I can change, I can change with just one more lie.”

    The next day, however, even without the drugs, the reinstated “lavender haze” still seems to be at play as Tove hangs out the window, lovingly caresses the crash test dummy’s face while the latter drives and enjoys a roadside meal with her ex-turned-current boo. But somehow, it all seems part of Annie’s elaborate revenge plan: make Tove fall back in love with her as a different human-shaped object and then crash them into a wall as they’re pursued by a police car (for no apparent reason other than, again, to come across like Thelma and Louise). Sure, maybe Tove thought it had to go down that way in order for them to be together, but what she failed to take into account about Annie’s machinations (no pun intended) is that she knew she was quite literally built to crash and survive. Which she’s now not only done in a harrowing relationship with Tove, but in this actual crash in which she finds herself burned, but still moving. A symphorophiliac in matters of love, thanks to Tove’s original callousness.

    Because perhaps being a symphorophiliac stems, at first, from getting off on watching how easy it is for a relationship to crash and burn—as fragile and delicate (if not more so) as any person prone to a fatal wreck inside a vehicle.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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