Swedish pop star Tove Lo has returned to the music scene four years after her 2022 album Dirt Femme with her new album ESTRUS. ESTRUS reflects many prevalent themes from her older music but with a more mature approach — exploring her sexual freedom, romantic anxiety, and the carnal madness at the core of it all. It paints the conflict between the body and the mind as she surrenders both to her insatiable desire and inevitable insecurities.
The first single from the album, ‘I’m your girl right?’ delves into the insecurities dominating her relationships, repeatedly asking the title question and begging to be told she is still loved and wanted. Siren-like instrumentals repeat throughout the chorus reaffirming these feelings of panic, blending with drums and synth to create a party anthem of anxiety and need.
‘DNH’ feels more familiar to Tove Lo’s typical style, with a flashy electro-pop sound of aggressive beats and layered vocals. Lyrically, it seems to address a friend who has ruined the night, driven by alcohol and sex, a friend that might be Tove Lo herself. Tove Lo’s other songs — namely her first hit single ‘Habits’ — illustrate her own struggles with alcohol, drug, and sex addictions. ‘DNH’ could be a song of forgiveness towards herself, a reminder that she will always love and care for herself regardless of unsavoury behaviour. ‘F.A.M.T.’ seems to solidify this idea, pulling on similar themes and familiar dark pop-synth production to further explore her use of alcohol and sex to distract from emotional turmoil.
‘die for my art with a lonely heart’ describes being torn between her artistic ambitions and the happiness derived from her relationships. Tove Lo is once again left questioning: Can her art exist without emotional turmoil?
On a similar path is ‘are we on a break’ — which is one of her strongest songs — mirrors the style of ‘I’m your girl right?’ with frequent, almost obsessive questioning and progressively escalating instrumentals ultimately subsiding to nothing, guiding the listener to a peak of panic as she lets her vulnerability seep into the synthesised beats.
But later tracks ‘roomie’ and ‘source of life’ lead the album to a fairly weak conclusion and similar to ‘the bad one’ and ‘if I could I would,’ lack soul and feel somewhat lazy lyrically compared to the rest of the album.
While this album was not Tove Lo’s strongest, I appreciate her willingness to bare what society would deem less acceptable parts of herself, especially in this modern era of aggressive modesty and sexual shaming that clings to successful women. Tove Lo’s loyalty to her musical style while offering an honest, intense, and impulsive perspective is respectable and warrants applause for the album overall.
By Stiansmoller – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125734571
