Last November, just moments after SVT revealed her as a Melodifestivalen 2017 competitor, she told wiwibloggs that a new album was in the pipeline.
And on Friday Swedish pop star Loreen gave us a taste of what’s to come by releasing “Body”, the lead single from her forthcoming album Nude (out August 25).
“The wait is over,” she wrote in an Instagram post shared with her 87,000 followers. “Today I released ‘Body’ — part one of my #NUDE project, a project just for you all.”
Magical, mystical, hypnotic — the number stays true to Loreen’s other-worldly sound, which is at once electronic and somehow spiritual.
Beginning with electro percussion, Loreen draws you into a trance with her breathy vocals that move from deep and mellow to piercing and soaring.
The song describes the magnetism she feels with a special someone, whose body speaks a language she most definitely understands.
“Alright, alright, once again side by side,” she sings to her lover. “So deep we touch the floor tonight, it’s written on your, it’s written on your, it’s written on your body…”
A quick scan of social media reveals largely positive reviews for the song.
“I love it,” one Facebook user named Andrew wrote on Loreen’s official page. “Thundering trip hop beats and a hypnotic Middle Eastern fusion.”
But another user, Antti, was left wanting. “Sounds equal to any other mass music song today. Why blend in when you have talent to do something different and unique?”
Loreen, who returned to Melodifestivalen 2017 with “Statements”, is accustomed to dividing attention. Some heralded her most recent Melfest act as performance art while others wrote it off as self-indulgent tosh or a total mess.
But for Loreen, who spoke with wiwibloggs just days after being relegated to Andra Chansen, that song, as with her music more generally, was about sharing a message.
“I have been told that people will never understand this,” she said.
“I was, like, why do you have such a low opinion of people, like they’re stupid? I don’t think they’re stupid, I think they’re effing smart. I’m out there playing at my shows and I can tell. I’m one of them. It’s just a question of knowing what to do.”
“We have this situation with the establishment and everyone is afraid. We wonder if anyone here is strong enough to give us some hope. So I think that if you have the guts and an opportunity, why not use it especially now to spread hope and power?”
She also told us about her forthcoming album Nude.
“The sound on this album is going to be a bit different. It became that somehow. It’s very Woodstock inspired, very low-fi. Why? Because of the whole situation in the world.
“It will be a completely new chapter, with a very specific focus on the human, the human values, what I feel is important today. I didn’t plan it to be this way, it became that.”
What do you think about “Body”? Are you excited about her new album Nude? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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https://youtu.be/qhYpjgSEmOM
Oh, forgot even to comment it. It’s so weird where she aims with this track, kinda progressive trance tune which was something a decade ago. I’m still wondering on album material to maybe dig something from it, hoping then that there’ll be more wild directions soundwise.
Zebb I thought the same. It sounds like 2007, 2010. Way too fast for 2017. Sorry Loreen 🙁 those tracks stayed too long on a computer to be released.
Interesting direction she’s taking. Going for a more radio friendly sound rather than just being all political or loud.
I think it’s a bit of both actually. It’s commercial while being loud & political. She has a lot to say and wants as many as possible to hear her, or something.
This sound wasn’t radio-friendly in 2010 when it was trendy, and it isn’t radio-friendly now either.
I guess the “woodstock inspirde electro rock album” died with “body”. Right after melfest she quite warner an thus all right on statements and the statements album… nude seems to be again a whole new chapter, which makes me kinda sad cause i love the sound if statements and was already so hyped for a whole album in this unique and gripping sound… i’m gonna buy nude no matter what but i wish she stayed on the statements wave for a little longer.
This is anything but forgettable, mass produced, or boring.. This trance sound is to die for and her unique voice shows her ability to sing in genres outside of Eurovision powerhouse songs. I absolutely love everything about this song. This song doesn’t blend in, it rather sticks out as a song that can still be electronic while not sounding like the mass produced “fast food” EDM on the radio today. Loreen has outdone herself.
Which was quite probably her intention all along. She got tired of sounding like everyone else, and she didn’t want her EDM to sound like everyone else’s, either, or like anything we’ve heard at Eurovision. Hence, a song like “Statements” which leans toward electro-rock, to break out of the box that “Euphoria” kept her in for so long. Now, with “Body”, she’s testing this new path she wants to take. Whichever path that is remains to be seen and will depend on whatever else is on her new album.
Unique voice? If you’re talking about the way she mumbles beyond human comprehension, I kinda know why no one else does that.
Why so negative? We get it already, you’re disappointed… move on…
She took mumbling to another level on this one!
The song itself is quite forgettable. Not something I would want to play more tha once in my life, so yeah. It’s sad to see that she went from the Eurovision’s biggest hit in decades to completely bombing like this, but it’s also her fault for releasing stuff with zero potential.
To be fair, this is her independently releasing content since she quit Warner Music Sweden. It sucks that she loses all the songs she had for the long desired “Paperlight” album but hopefully she gets better songwriters, cleaner production and LESS AUTOTUNE (I couldn’t hear half of the words the first time).
I think currently she is releasing whatever she can to get any hype back so when she has more money she can invest in another masterpiece, I guess we just have to wear out the storm to paradise 😛
Another masterpiece? Given that her debut album is the same song playing for 45 minutes (except for 3 minutes of Euphoria), I’d say that her masterpiece has yet to come, but it certainly won’t be Nude.
Very early 2010’s. It’s a little dated and transmits nothing new to me.
I love Statements. This one is just “meh-music”.
THE QUEEN is finally back.