Youth Novels

This 22-year-old quirk-pop chanteuse (whose name I can inform you on good authority is pronounced Luke-uh Lee) has been getting music fans across the blogosphere hot under the collar with her debut release, Youth Novels. Hot Press can see why. Album opener ‘Melodies & Desires’ reflects the chill and sparseness of its Scandanavian birthplace, building gradually with a crystallised, icy keyboard, a strata of cool synths, an eerie piano loop, strings, and finally, Miss Li’s husky spoken-word poem to the heart: “Love is a symphony/ come play with me… I’ll be the rhythm and you’ll be the beat”, before petering out into nothing. Its amateurish, cut ’n paste layering is a technique repeated throughout the record, making the songs sound like they’re being put together like a jigsaw right there in front of you – a charming contrast to what you’d expect from an album that spent 10 months in studio gestation.
‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ kicks off with a clattering drumstick-hitting-a-table beat; then comes the simple, pumping bass and, unexpectedly, a jaunty sax line, while Lykke sings “daahnce daahnce daahnce” and clips her T’s in an East-End-by- way-of-Stokholm style, her tone girlish and flirtatious. Yes, she does sound young, but not in a genuinely pre-pubescent Smoosh kinda way (i.e. the kinda way that makes you feel dirty for even thinking it might be dirty in the first place), more a just-woken-up, high pitched and wispy-type young, a la former Concretes frontwoman Victoria Bergsman. It must be a Swedish thing. But by far the best feature here is the backing vocal choir: it comes on like a Scandanavian Ronettes, tightly harmonised vocals captured in liquid nitrogen, a block party at the North Pole, giving the whole thing a weird, ghostly Spector-ish thing way, waaay off in the distance (a theme echoed with the syncopated hand-clap on the brilliant ‘I’m Good, I’m Gone’, and the soft, aching chorus of ‘My Love’).
It came as no surprise to learn that Miss Lee is obsessed with Kate Bush – it’s audible in her approach to sounds, though she’s not near as fantastical – and when I read that the album was produced by Bjorn from Peter, Bjorn and John my inner voice went “aaaah, yes”. But I get the impression this girl’s talent has more legs than her ‘Young Folks’ helms-man’s band. Can’t wait to see her live – I’m gonna daahnce daahnce daahnce…

Key Track: ‘I'm good, i'm gone’