Lady Wood

Background

On 17 August, Lo revealed that her second studio album would be titled Lady Wood and would be released on 28 October 2016. In reference to the title, she commented that "it's kind of like saying a chick with balls, but since we don't have balls, it's lady wood."

Composition

Lady Wood was inspired by "the chase, the rush, the peak, and the downfall [of the] emotional rollercoaster" Lo experienced since her extended play Truth Serum and debut studio album Queen of the Clouds were released in 2014. The album consists of two chapters: "Fairy Dust", which details the euphoria surrounding an gratifying encounter, and "Fire Fade", which highlights a subsequent sense of self-awareness. Lo announced Lady Wood is to be the first half of a two-piece double album, with the third and fourth chapters "Light Beam" and "Pitch Black" to be included on Lo's third studio album in 2017.

Promotion

The lead single from the album, "Cool Girl", was released on 4 August 2016, reaching number 15 in Sweden and number 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

"Influence" was released on 9 September 2016 as the first promotional single from the album. The song features American rapper Wiz Khalifa. "True Disaster" was originally released on 14 October 2016 as the second promotional single. The song was sent to US contemporary hit radio on 15 November 2016 as the album's second single.

Tour

On 23 October 2016, five days prior to the release of the Lady Wood, Lo announced North American and European headlining Lady Wood Tour, with special guests Phoebe Ryan and Broods, to promote the album. Various South American dates and festival dates were later announced. The tour is scheduled to begin on February 6, 2017 in Seattle, Washington.

Fairy Dust

The trailer for Fairy Dust, a short film based on the first half of the album, was released on 17 October 2016. The full short film for Fairy Dust was released on 31 October 2016. She later confirmed that another short film for the second half of the album title Fire Fade would be released in early 2017. Pitch Black and Light Beam will be the two chapters on her third album which will be a sequel to Lady Wood with short films accompanying both.

Critical reception

Lady Wood received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 74, based on 16 reviews. Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain praised the album as "the darkest, weirdest, most irresistible pop record of the fall" and wrote, "While Lo's lyrics are stark and intensely personal, the music sounds engineered for the masses." Writing for NME, Nick Levine commented that "[s]ome listeners may not warm to Lo's persona, but her songwriting skills are difficult to fault", adding that "she keeps the hooks coming throughout as her hip, minimal electro-pop quivers, shimmers, pulses and throbs." Alim Kheraj of DIY noted that "Lady Wood isn't an album made for radio or easy digestion. The hooks are there but, like Tove herself, they aren't succumbing expectations."

Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone opined that the album "doesn't have anything that hits quite as hard as 'Stay High (Habits)' [sic] and 'Talking Body' [...] But its minimalist tech-house sound has a darkly textured allure". Heather Phares of AllMusic remarked that "despite its provocative title, [Lady Wood] often feels more straightforward than Queen of the Clouds did." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine concluded that "Lady Wood is admirably lean and tightly focused, and though it doesn't boast confessionals on the order of Like a Prayer's, it offers a peek inside the psyche of a smart, burgeoning young star." Katherine St. Asaph of Pitchfork stated that "Lady Wood is short, but Lo finds ample darkness to plumb." The Observer's Kitty Empire expressed that "Lady Wood is, if anything, classier than Queen of the Clouds. But it might not sell so well, in that it lacks the sleazy catnip—the sex clubs, the self-abasement—displayed in the latter's defining singles."

Track listing

Notes

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lady Wood.