Lykke Li Details Album ‘Eyeye’ After Dropping First Song in Two Years
UPDATE (3/24): On Friday, Lykke Li announced the release of her immersive audiovisual album Eyeye, out May 20. The LP will feature seven tracks — including her new single “No Hotel” — and with their accompanying visuals, the project will find Lykke Li telling a story about the cycles of love, addiction, relapse, and obsession.
“We wanted to capture the beauty and grandeur of a three-hour European arthouse movie while making something native to modern media,” Li said in a statement about the album’s visual element. “The intention is to deliver the full impact of a movie in sixty seconds on a phone screen, which is where most of our emotional experiences happen now anyway.”
Li recorded Eyeye in her bedroom in Los Angeles, working alongside Björn Yttlink, who last worked with her on 2014’s I Never Learn. “I wanted the record to have the intimacy of listening to a voice memo on a macro dose of LSD,” Li added
In support of the LP, Li will head on a tour this fall with stops in seven cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Toronto. A track list and tour dates are below.
***
Lykke Li wants to rewind to when things were going well. On Wednesday, the Swedish pop star surprise-dropped her eerie ballad “No Hotel,” in which she reminisces about a past love — and longing for their return.
The melancholic track opens with the sound of a squeaky door hinge before Li sings in the opening verse: “There’s no hotel. No cigarettes. And you’re still in love with someone else.” She goes on to sing to a former flame, “take me back,” before later admitting, “With every step, I’m not over you.” The blue song wraps with the soft chirp of crickets.
Though Li released a 10th-anniversary edition of her album Wounded Rhymes last year, “No Hotel” is the singer’s first new release since dropping her first Swedish-language track “Bron” and a haunting cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” in 2020. Li’s most recent album, So Sad So Sexy — which featured tracks such as “Sex Money Feelings Die” and “Hard Rain” — arrived in 2018.
Back in 2019, Li collaborated with her friend Yola Jimenez to launch the mezcal brand, Yola, along with an accompanying festival.“ I definitely want to emphasize that this is a festival where we highlight women, but it’s not a festival for only women,” she told Rolling Stone at the time. “I think so much in the world now is about technology and disconnection, so [this is] just a place to be present.”
Eyeye Track List
1. “No Hotel”
2. “You Don’t Go Away”
3. “Highway to Your Heart”
4. “Happy Hurts”
5. “Carousel”
6. “4D”
7. “ü&i”
Lykke Li Tour Dates
September 26 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
September 28 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
September 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel
October 3 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore Minneapolis
October 4 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre
October 6 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
October 8 – New York, NY @ Apollo Theater