Listening to this EP feels like standing in a cold, empty room where the only warmth comes from the glow of a dying ember.
Listening to this EP feels like standing in a cold, empty room where the only warmth comes from the glow of a dying ember. Lykke Li has always been a master of the 'sad girl' aesthetic, but here she pushes it to its logical, skeletal conclusion. By taking familiar pop structures and slowing them down to a near-stasis, she forces the listener to confront the raw emotional core of the lyrics. The production is so sparse that every intake of breath and every creak of a piano stool feels like a deliberate part of the composition.
Released in June 2025, Covers is an EP that serves as a bridge between Lykke Li's highly conceptual visual album EYEYE and her future full-length endeavors. Known for her ability to blend Scandinavian pop sensibilities with a dark, electronic edge, this collection sees her leaning heavily into the 'chamber pop' and 'dream pop' facets of her sound. The project features deconstructed versions of both contemporary hits and classic standards, all filtered through her signature reverb-soaked, minimalist production style. Collaborating once again with long-time creative partners, the EP emphasizes analog warmth and tape saturation, giving the recordings a dusty, archival feel. Critical reception has highlighted her vocal performance, specifically her use of close-mic techniques to create an intense sense of intimacy. This record solidifies her position as a premier architect of atmospheric melancholy in the modern pop landscape.
Put this on for
watching rain blur the streetlights from a dark windowdecompressing after a social event that felt hollowsitting alone in a room lit only by a single candlethe quiet hour of a long train ride through gray landscapesprocessing the end of a relationship in total silencereading poetry while the house is completely still
Moments worth waiting for
The way her voice cracks into a whisper during the final chorus of the lead track, stripped of all percussion.
The sudden introduction of a deep, distorted synth bass that anchors the otherwise weightless bridge of the second cover.
A haunting multi-tracked vocal harmony that rises like a ghost during the instrumental outro of the closing song.
Sounds like
2025s production with a 2020s soul
Lyrical territory
love_lost, nostalgia, self_examination
03Deviation
Covers · vs · Lykke Li
Artist
This Album
Low Energy
Energy · ↓ −10% less than usual
On this album, low energy sits about 10% less prominent than across the rest of the artist's catalogue.
