Live
< Lykke Li
words by Stuart Stubbs
Lyyke Li at Hoxton Bar And KitchenFive minutes ago infinitely more hands would have been in the air. “Then this next song is for you,” angelically whispers Stockholm’s Lykke Li, in the direction of the solo pair of digits thrust skyward, no doubt belonging to the most clueless body in Hoxton tonight. The rest of us force our arms to the floor, following the posed question of “Is anyone here not in love?” “I am…with you!” is a heckle only one brave soul blurts out. But we’re all thinking it.
A little more than pint-sized and clad in black, Lykke Li is beautiful. There’s no denying that, so let’s get the obvious out of the way. Sometimes she’s cute with it, melodically singing hushed, romantic ballads, like the closing ‘Tonight’, other times she’s a feisty roman candle that thrusts her shoulders, clenches her fists and part raps to digital beats. In either case, tonight at least, she seems effortlessly cool with the position she currently finds herself in – propped in front of the oversubscribed Bar And Kitchen mob, their eyes the wider to see her with.
“Are we in London? Gosh it’s so quite,” says the songstress, bemused by how ‘British’ we’re all behaving. But we’re infatuated, with the songs as much as the endearing source they flow from. ‘Little Bit’ – a song you’ve no doubt heard seductively snaking out of MTV2 late of an evening – unpredictably receives the second biggest cheer heard tonight, pipped only by the sound of Li’s band warming up Lou Reed’s ‘Walking On The Wild Side’. “You kow this one,” she rightfully announces. The vocal line can’t approach fast enough as bass notes slide from left to right. This is going to be something to tell the flatmate, if not the grandkids. And then something better happens. Li raps Tribe Called Quest’s, Lou Reed hook-snatching ‘Can I Kick It?’ Well, the first verse and chorus at least.
Yep, we’re in love by this point, for sure. The real stuff. The “let’s not bother with the pre-nups, even if I am an ex-Beatle” kind.
But we remain realists. Lykke Li belongs to the masses, more so than to a hundred odd folk in east London. Her classic pop is not for snobs or musos, but for everyone who appreciates a perfectly delivered melody. Vocally, she’s picking up from where The Concretes failed to come good, but there’s more here. It’s cooler. Especially when urban beats are thrown into the mix, giving this Scandinavian more of a strutting backbone than her countless fellow countrymen/women. And depending on whether Lykke Li chooses to explore this avenue at greater length, or the amorous, down-tempo balladeer in her, she’s going to either wind up Lily big or having Timberland knocking her door down. In any case, Lykke Li is going to be huge.
Originally appeared in volume 1, issue 29 of Loud & Quiet magazine
