Cool Girl
By Tom Lanham
T
he embroidered bomber jackets look rather unassuming, so much so that you might not even notice them upon first inspection. But when you look closer at the huge, skeletal design on the back of them, you’ ll see what appears to be inverted shark jaws, gaping open with no threatening teeth, and with a round dot at the top and a crucifix dangling below. Then, every once in a while, the design becomes starkly apparent to the truly insightful viewer – yes, it’ s a woman’ s vagina, complete with clitoris, proudly declares Swedish alt-pop diva Tove Lo of the startling artwork, which she also has tattooed on her right arm. Additionally, the image replaces the two Os in her name on the cover of Lady Wood, her recent sexuallyfrank sophomore album, above a photo of her own hotpants-adorned crotch. But the outerwear, sported exclusively by her band and tour crew, has elevated the concept to a much more confrontational level.
“ We call them the Va-Jackets,” giggles the Stockholm-based Lo, 29, who was born Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson.“ And we were going to a show at Red Rocks in Colorado once, and somebody came up to us and said,‘ Hey, what’ s that sign on your back?’ And some of the guys from the crew said,‘ Oh, it’ s a vagina logo.’ And the person said,‘ Oh, it is? No, come on! What is it really?’ They told him again, and he said,‘ Hey! My wife’ s over here! You can’ t talk like that around her!’ And they were like,‘ Well, she has one! You should ask her about it.’” Lo can’ t stop chuckling about the absurdity of the incident. She doesn’ t see any of her behavior or career moves as even vaguely shocking, not even the use of the moniker Lady Wood, a witty nickname for a female erection.
Lo was raised in an affluent Stockholm suburb, the daughter of a psychologist mother and executive father. She was
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always the edgy kid on the playground who accepted any dares, and she stunned her folks by switching to Sweden’ s artscentered high school, Rytmus Musikergymnasiet. After graduation, she was soon sculpting hits for others, like Girls Aloud and Icona Pop( whose singer Caroline Hjelt had befriended her at Rytmus). Then she was invited into her country’ s most elite songwriting collective, producer Max Martin’ s secretive Wolf Cousins, which earned her Grammy and Golden Globe nominations for her work on Ellie Goulding’ s " Love Me Like You Do." By the time she issued her Queen of the Clouds debut in 2014, she was comfortable enough with her songwriting to compose hits like“ Habits( Stay High),” which trumpeted those age-old tropes of sex, drugs and rock and roll as the enduring panacea for heartbreak. In Sweden, the track won her a 2015 Grammy for Song of the Year and Artist of the Year, as well.
“ With my first album, I was very surprised when people started saying that I was this sexual, provocative girl,” sighs Lo, who – like all Swedish students – had sex education from an early age.“ I thought that first I would get a reaction for being open and honest, for being like,‘ Hey, I fucked up – I’ m sorry.’ That’ s what I thought people were going to react to, because in pop music, you usually won’ t take the blame.” She was wrong. Singing bluntly about sex, she says, got certain prudish adults suggesting that she wasn’ t taking appropriate responsibility for her increasingly-widening fan base of teenage girls.“ And I was like,‘ Well, I don’ t feel like I should have to do anything other than be who I am and not apologize for that, and I guess that is taking responsibility for young women,’” she adds, defensively.“ And even if I’ m not, it shouldn’ t matter. I should be able to just be who I am and not be questioned all of the time. So I thought,‘ Fuck it.’ I love doing things that give me rushes, because that’ s what life is for me. So I’ m going to keep on doing them. I definitely didn’ t want to back down from any of the things I was criticized for. So I just went for it, even harder.”
Hence, Lo’ s pop-cultural achievements over the past year, such as releasing a 30- minute film online, Fairy Dust( to reflect the first half of Lady Wood of the same name), which features the new anthems“ Disaster,”“ Cool Girl,” and“ Lady Wood” itself, and co-stars activist Lina Esco, founder of the Free the Nipple movement. Thanks to its depiction of masturbation, the clip was quickly taken down from YouTube, but that barely slowed her down. Soon Lo was appearing at Australia’ s prestigious ARIA Awards in a performance with Flume, where she donned a red seethrough dress with an anatomically-correct leather uterus and fallopian tubes sewn on at groin level, a look that didn’ t leave much to the imagination. When her stylist proposed the daring design she pounced at the fashion opportunity.“ I’ m comfortable in my body, so I was totally comfortable with it being like an X-ray dress,” she admits.“ And again, I knew it would probably get some attention, but it was crazy, the reaction! I did a bunch of interviews the day after, and people kept asking,‘ Are you okay?’ And I was like,‘ Oh. Was it that bad?’ I guess I just enjoy being the girl with lady wood!”
Speaking of which, Lady Wood the record only augments the Lo’ s controversial reputation. It opens on a minute long instrumental, " Fairy Dust( Chapter I)," then slips right into the slinky, finger-popping banger“ Influence,” which features the rat-a-tat rhymes of Wiz Khalifa and kicks off with the disarming couplet“ First line take mine I’ m fine as fuck / Love myself tonight and I think you can feel the same … I’ m under the influence / So don’ t trust every word I say.” The title cut follows, with Lo chirping in her deceptively innocent-sounding voice,“ Nothing but a dirty mind / Player burning bridges where she goes … Why judge a babe who dance, alone?” The undulating, autobiographical“ True Disaster” follows, with the sagacious declaration“ Pretty boys they didn’ t teach me things I didn’ t know / They don’ t have that thing that I need but they don’ t know they don’ t.” The chorus hammers home Lo’ s relationship ideology:“ Come on, give zero fucks about it / Come on, I know I’ m gonna get hurt.”
Another minute-long interlude sets up“ Fire Fade( Chapter II),” a lead-in to the swaying“ Don’ t Talk About It,” perhaps referring to societal expectations for women in general when it comes to frank self-expression. The synth-supple“ Keep It Simple” takes a breakup to its most elements, and puts the power firmly into the hands of the female protagonist with” I go to bed with you but dream about him … Let me keep it simple / So I don’ t have to face ya / Let it be just my call /‘ Cause I ain’ t ready for ya.” A kiss-off never sounded so sugary-sweet. But it’ s not like Lo is completely heartless. In the serpentine ballad“ Flashes,” she counters her own post-stardom confession of“ When I fuck things up / When I fuck things up in front of camera flashes” with a friendly, inquisitive“ What about you?” See? She does care about you! The album closes on“ WTF Love Is,” which provides no easy answers, just a little self-examination, wherein a club-hopping Lo views herself as a“ Lonely babe stranded on the dance floor … I know that I’ m a handful … know what you signed up for.”“ I need another!” she barks at the tracks’ finish, never speci-
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