Lady Wood is the second studio album by Swedish singer Tove Lo. It was released on 28 October 2016 by Island Records. The project was recorded between 2014 and May 2016, which Lo commented was a quicker turnaround than the "whole life" she was afforded when creating her previous record.
Lady Wood consists of two chapters, "Fairy Dust" and "Fire Fade", which collectively describe the "different kinds of rushes in life". Lo considers it to be the first half of a two-piece double album, later being supplemented with the chapters "Light Beam" and "Pitch Black" announced for her upcoming third studio album Blue Lips (2017). Lo co-wrote all 12 tracks included on the record; she collaborated with guest vocalists Wiz Khalifa and Joe Janiak, and producers including Rickard Göransson, Joel Little, and Ilya Salmanzadeh.
"Cool Girl" was serviced as the lead single from Lady Wood on 4 August 2016, reaching number 15 in Sweden and number 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100. "True Disaster" was released on 15 November 2016 as the album's second single. The short film Fairy Dust, inspired by the first half of the record, was released on Vevo on 31 October. The album peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting album in the country to date.
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Background and composition
Lady Wood was inspired by "the chase, the rush, the peak, and the downfall [of the] emotional rollercoaster" Lo experienced since her extended play Truth Serum and debut studio album Queen of the Clouds were released in 2014. The album consists of two chapters: "Fairy Dust", which details the euphoria surrounding an gratifying encounter, and "Fire Fade", which highlights a subsequent sense of self-awareness. Lo announced Lady Wood is to be the first half of a two-piece double album, with the third and fourth chapters "Light Beam" and "Pitch Black" to be included on Lo's third studio album in 2017.
Fairy Dust Diy Video
Release
On 17 August, Lo revealed that her second studio album would be titled Lady Wood and would be released on 28 October 2016. In reference to the title, Tove Lo recalls "writing the bridge of the title track, and thinking that I wanted to say, like, 'You're turning me on,' but I wanted to find another word. Like, what's the word for a female hard-on? I think I heard it in a movie somewhere--they were just like, 'You give me wood.' And I was like, 'Girl wood, or, Lady wood! Yes!'"
Promotion
The lead single from the album, "Cool Girl", was released on 4 August 2016, reaching number 15 in Sweden and number 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
"Influence" was released on 9 September 2016 as the first promotional single from the album. The song features American rapper Wiz Khalifa. "True Disaster" was originally released on 14 October 2016 as the second promotional single. The song was sent to US contemporary hit radio on 15 November 2016 as the album's second single.
Tour
On 23 October 2016, five days prior to the release of the Lady Wood, Lo announced North American and European headlining Lady Wood Tour, with special guests Phoebe Ryan and Broods, to promote the album. Various South American dates, Australian dates, other miscellaneous concerts, and festival dates were later announced at different times. The tour kicked off on 6 February 2017 in Seattle, Washington.
Fairy Dust and Fire Fade
The trailer for Fairy Dust, a short film based on the first half of the album, was unveiled on 17 October 2016. The full short film for Fairy Dust was released on 31 October 2016. A short film for the second half of the album, titled Fire Fade, was released on 25 August 2017. Pitch Black and Light Beam will be the two chapters on her third album, which will be a sequel to Lady Wood, with short films accompanying both.
Critical reception
Lady Wood received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 74, based on 16 reviews. Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain praised the album as "the darkest, weirdest, most irresistible pop record of the fall" and wrote, "While Lo's lyrics are stark and intensely personal, the music sounds engineered for the masses." Writing for NME, Nick Levine commented that "[s]ome listeners may not warm to Lo's persona, but her songwriting skills are difficult to fault", adding that "she keeps the hooks coming throughout as her hip, minimal electro-pop quivers, shimmers, pulses and throbs." Alim Kheraj of DIY noted that "Lady Wood isn't an album made for radio or easy digestion. The hooks are there but, like Tove herself, they aren't succumbing expectations."
Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone opined that the album "doesn't have anything that hits quite as hard as 'Stay High (Habits)' [sic] and 'Talking Body' [...] But its minimalist tech-house sound has a darkly textured allure". Heather Phares of AllMusic remarked that "despite its provocative title, [Lady Wood] often feels more straightforward than Queen of the Clouds did." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine concluded that "Lady Wood is admirably lean and tightly focused, and though it doesn't boast confessionals on the order of Like a Prayer's, it offers a peek inside the psyche of a smart, burgeoning young star." Katherine St. Asaph of Pitchfork stated that "Lady Wood is short, but Lo finds ample darkness to plumb." The Observer's Kitty Empire expressed that "Lady Wood is, if anything, classier than Queen of the Clouds. But it might not sell so well, in that it lacks the sleazy catnip--the sex clubs, the self-abasement--displayed in the latter's defining singles."
Track listing
Notes
- ^[a] signifies a remixer
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lady Wood.
Charts
Release history
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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