Earlier this month Lykke Li played a gig at Cirkus in Stockholm and of course I was grumpy that I couldn’t afford to go see her. I’ll admit that I was a little bit disappointed of the progress of Lykke when she performed at last year’s Way Out West festival in Gothenburg. All grown up and dark and dangerous all of a sudden. Even as I do acknowledge the fact that she was a bit sick around the time of the gig at the festival, I’m still hesitant that I would’ve liked it. Maybe what it all comes down to is that she herself wasn’t really sure of where she was, where she came from or where she was going artistically at the time. It may also be so, which is more probable, that Lykke is that kind of artist who really is ahead of her audience and therefore it takes a while for her audience to allow her fascinating and occasionally brilliant art to sink in. So I definitely would’ve liked to see how far she’s come now onstage.
I wasn’t a big fan of Youth Novels when it came around, but it grew on me. It grew into that kind of youth and/or lost youth record that you really need when you’re a youth or is missing what you consider your youth. I wasn’t a big fan of Wounded Rhymes either the first few spins. But it has grown on me, and will probably continue to grow on me and many others towards the end of the year lists as it unfurls and illuminates new depths within itself for every new listen. It appears Lykke Li is already destined to become a successful, whatever that means, artist aging very well like a fine wine.
One of those songs that have grown most on me during these years after her 2008 debut album is perhaps her most known and most defining of the beginning of her career. The quirky instrumentation and girlishly whispery vocals allure the listener into what I now consider a masterpiece pop song: Little Bit. Is it merely a very well written song that succeeds triumphantly in all its subtlety to depict longing and being a little bit in love?
No, thank producer Björn Yttling, of Peter Bjorn And John, for this quiet little grand achievement. What gives Little Bit both that extra sense of depth and sense of open air alike is the same production technique used to propel Young Folks to such extraordinary recognition. I’m not a musician, and I can’t really imagine how this uncrowned Nestor of Swedish indie pop thinks in his productions. The only real audible and concrete ingredient I can point out are those underlying organ-like synths that drops in for the choruses. If you’ve never heard them you’ll get an aha-experience to why Little Bit sounds so fucking great. Of course there’s more to that than just those brilliant synths which you can also hear in Young Folks and probably more Yttling-produced songs I can’t think of right now. He’s obviously very talented at fusing different sounds together into an astonishing whole. All I can really tell for sure is that pleasant feeling that Little Bit gives you, the one that elevates it from a passable ditty to a brilliant, forward-thinking and modern pop package. I dare you to listen to it and not love it and/or Lykke Li just a little bit.
Listen to Little Bit on Spotify!
And watch the perfectly matching video too below!
