(Atlantic)

For her hotly-anticipated second long-player, Swedish pop icon Lykke Li (in tandem with producer Bjorn of Peter, Bjorn and John fame) has excavated and allied various classic templates from the 60s and the 80s to create a break-up album of nostalgic yet fairly visionary alt-pop.

‘Love out of Lust’ combines 60s surf-rock with the spacey new wave of The Dream Academy; ‘Get Some’ fuses post-punk tub-thumping with sunny Bananarama harmonies; ‘Youth Knows No Pain’ is all day-glo Wurlitzer psychedelia; and ‘Unrequited Love’ recalls a down-time Shangri-Las. It’s less sickly than her 2008 debut, Youth Novels, and all the more palatable for it.

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (Director: Tarik Saleh)

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (Animated Video)

Lykke Li - Sadness is a Blessing (Director Tarik Saleh)