\n<\/p>\n
When Lykke Li picks up the phone early Monday morning, I find her in Los Angeles, where she\u2019s been rehearsing for Coachella<\/a>. This evening, the brooding Swedish singer-songwriter and \u201chigh priestess of heartbreak and sadness,\u201d per collaborator Mark Ronson<\/a>, will be in Indio, performing material from her sixth studio album, The Afterparty<\/em> (out May 8).<\/p>\n Li, who first burst onto the indie music scene with her debut album Youth Novels<\/em> in 2008, before finding mainstream success with \u201cI Follow Rivers\u201d from 2011\u2019s Wounded Rhymes<\/em>, is finding the prospect of performing new music rather daunting. It reminds her of the early days of her career: \u201cWhen I was 19 or 20, I always had to prove myself or win someone over.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s confronting that creeping insecurity with a fighter\u2019s spirit. \u201cI\u2019m going into it like a brutalist boxing ring,\u201d Li explains. \u201cI can\u2019t count on there being any fans or any love there. So I have to just wrestle my way through this set.\u201d<\/p>\n Li channels a similar attitude on The Afterparty<\/em>, shirking her more plaintive inclinations. I ask if that shift was intentional. \u201cYeah, for sure,\u201d she says. With her last album, 2022\u2019s EYEYE<\/em>, \u201cI met those demons within myself, and now I\u2019m somewhere else, which is very exciting.\u201d She describes this moment as her \u201cexistential era.\u201d<\/p>\n That squares with what\u2019s happening on The Afterparty<\/em> lyrically: the album is more hopeful, inquisitive, and philosophical than anything else we\u2019ve heard from Li to date. \u201cBaby hold on tight \/ \u2019Til the bitter end \/ If we\u2019re lucky \/ We\u2019ll get lucky again,\u201d she sings on the album\u2019s first single, \u201cLucky Again.\u201d<\/a> She\u2019s open to love, but not chasing it as she once did. \u201cWhen you\u2019re young, you have this feeling that there\u2019s someone who can save you from yourself,\u201d Li reflects. \u201cIn my case, I had a romantic idea of what that salvation meant.\u201d<\/p>\n The after-party itself serves as a nicely layered metaphor. In the most literal interpretation, it evokes a space in which \u201cyou do things you might regret\u201d as the night ends. But she also thinks of the after-party as what comes after the messy freedom of youth. \u201cIn your 20s, you’re at the pregame and you have everything ahead of you. Are you going to fall in love? Are you going to be famous? Are you going to move somewhere?\u201d she muses. \u201cAnd now, with all this life experience, you’re a couple of heartbreaks in and you’ve been around the block.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n