"An album dealing with your lower self": Lykke Li announces 'final' record The Afterparty

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Her sixth album The Afterparty is set for an 8 May release and marks the Swedish singer-songwriter’s first full-length collection since 2022’s audiovisual project EYEYE. During a listening party in LA, the Swedish singer explained that the new project “is my sixth album, and maybe my final,' which was confirmed by her team to Pitchfork earlier today.

The album’s first taster, "Lucky Again" is built on a maximalist arrangement featuring disco-influenced strings and a sample from Max Richter’s recomposition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Li describes the song as “samsara in a song. The wheel of life; winning, losing, living, dying. Having had something and praying you’ll have it again.”

According to Li, the nine-track record confronts themes of mortality, hedonism, and impermanence. Written in Los Angeles and recorded in Stockholm, the record is said to incorporate “apocalyptic bongos”, prominent flute, and gospel-tinged brightness. At 24 minutes long, The Afterparty is intended as an unsparing study of what she terms the “lower self”.: "We’re in an era where everyone is talking about, ‘My higher self’,” she says. “Fuck that. This is an album dealing with your lower self: your need for revenge, your shame, despair.” She likens her persona on the record to a “Ram Dass for fuckboys”.

Alongside the album news, Li has confirmed a run of live dates, including an appearance at London’s Finsbury Park on 5 July supporting Wolf Alice, as well as festival slots at Coachella, Pohoda in Slovakia, and Metronome in Prague.