Lykke Li, Village Underground - music review

Goth art-rocker Lykke Li was a mass of flailing limbs and ethereal vocals
Incredible sounds: Lykke Li (Picture: Stefan Hoederath/Redferns via Getty)
Stefan Hoederath/Redferns via Getty Images
Rick Pearson9 May 2014

Those who missed out on Kate Bush tickets would do well to turn their attentions to the witchy charms of Lykke Li. The Swede, in town to promote her third album I Never Learn, is another exponent of gothic art-rock.

Since the release of her 2007 debut Youth Novels, her hair has changed from blonde to black — a shift that’s mirrored in her melancholic new material, which Li has described as “power ballads for the broken”.

The Village Underground, a converted east London warehouse, provided suitably gothic surroundings in which to hear these bruised, bloodied break-up ballads. Yet it’s the 28-year-old’s knack with a catchy chorus that makes the pain more palatable.

Backed by a five-piece band — dressed head-to-toe in black, naturally — Li was a mass of flailing limbs and ethereal vocals. A new track, No Rest for the Wicked, was built around a hypnotic piano figure and skittering beats; Little Bit was given a muscular makeover, prompting even this cooler-than-thou crowd into some spontaneous shape-throwing.

The acoustic guitars emerged for the raw ballad Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone, although the best moments were the boldest: a cymbal-smashing Rich Kids Blues, a guitar-driven Gunshot and an arms-aloft I Follow Rivers.

Get Some contained the night’s most arresting lyric (“like a shotgun needs an outcome, I’m your prostitute, you gonna get some”) but this was hard-hitting stuff. Ballads for the broken? Disco for the ditched? Whatever you call it, last night it sounded incredible.

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