“I’m an attention wh***,” repeats Tove Lo in a robotic monotone on her fifth album, Dirt Femme. Bang on brand for the 34-year-old Swede born Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson, whose sad, confessional bangers once saw her hailed as “the world’s most brutally honest pop star”. So the narratives are dependably punchy through this record, and they’re carried by solidly danceable Eighties and Nineties club beats. Not an original sound, then. But one that allows her more challenging or subversive thoughts to slide slyly into a night out on the town.
Thematically, Lo is always trying to square her bold, feminist, exhibitionist streak (which saw her bare her breasts on stage at Glastonbury) with the anxiety and self-doubt that left her struggling with an eating disorder for five years. Commanding songs such as “Attention Wh***” (on which she demands “keep your eyes on me” while California rapper Channel Tres admires her “skintight leather”) and “Pineapple Slice” (“I lift my hips, that’s your go-ahead”) are balanced by others like “Grapefruit”, on which she directly addresses her eating disorder.
