Loreen is making the absolute most of her brand new record deal and the creative freedom that’s come with it. In the five years between the ‘Heal’ album and this summer, we had been bless with a grand total of FOUR new songs from her. But now that she’s been set free, in five months since her new record deal was announced she’s released an EP and now a whole new album. Whatever your thoughts on her new sound and style, it’s a massive relief all round that as an artist she’s finally doing what she’s supposed to be doing – making music.
The new album is ‘Ride’, and it follows on from August’s ‘Nude’ EP. It almost seems like an album of two halves, in that the first half is front loaded with the record’s absolute best tracks. The single ’71 Charger’ takes pride of place as the opening number (and gets a special remix included as the closing number), and rightly so – it’s a new-era epic. It’s followed by ‘Dreams’ which is a brand new track, but features a warmth that at times comes across as familiarity. The next couple of tracks are ‘Jupiter Drive’ and ‘Fire Blue’, which she has been performing live for a few years now. We therefore had a hint of what they would sound like, but the finished recordings are something very special indeed – particularly ‘Fire Blue’. Track 5 is her most recent single ‘Hate The Way I Love You’. And at six minutes and thirty nine seconds in length, it feels like an extended interlude in itself. And then second half of the album commences. And to be honest, it feels like it’s at this point that the remainder of the album almost blends into one, long, mid-tempo piece of soft electronica with a lot of poorly enunciated mumbling over it and no discernible melody. But then it is early days…..
Below you can stream the album in full. And watch the music video for the title track ‘Ride’ that she released yesterday.
