Four years have passed since Tove Lo dropped her Dirt Femme project which saw the artist continue to stretch her wings, producing some of her smartest and engaging material to date.
Continuing this track record of impactful sounds that fuses elements of dance, house, and pop music, Lo’s collaborative EP with British musician and producer SG Lewis, HEAT, amplified the profiles of both artists while providing floor-filling music for clubs everywhere in 2024.
As an architect of some of pop’s sharpest moments in recent years, the Swedish songwriter and musician has always maintained a knack for threading emotionally resonant lyricism with hedonistic, forward-thinking music with ease.
This year, Lo returns with a brand-new album, Estrus. For longtime fans, it’s an enticing return; for those new to Lo’s artistry, it’s a perfect way to get acquainted.
“It does feel surreal that it’s all about to happen now,” she admits, offering a small laugh as she thinks ahead to the release. She says she would have liked some more time with the album, but it’s a project she cannot wait to share with her fans.
The album was made between Los Angeles, Stockholm, and a small region of Sweden where Lo recalls memories from her formative years.
“The process started with my producer and I having a month in LA writing together,” she says. “Usually, we can easily tap in, we’ve been working with each other for so long. I call him the second half of Tove Lo. We just couldn’t find ‘the thing’ this time around, though.
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“It was the end of 2024 and we didn’t write a song during the month we had together that felt good. I was way too in my own head. I felt like I was in the middle of some kind of personal metamorphosis and I didn’t know how to express it. My producer was just trying to go anywhere with whatever my vibe was, and it was just exhausting for the both of us. He suggested we both do something else and get back into it when I felt like I knew who I was.”
A place where “every heartbreak, every hard moment” was experienced, as well as dreams “being formed and crushed,” returning to this small Swedish village proved to be the catalyst Lo needed to break a period of creative drought.
“We met back up in March, in this area on the west coast that I spent every summer as a kid. We went there, just him and I, locked in. No distractions. It was off-season, so there was not a single person around. Honestly, on day one, we got drunk and it all just came out! It started to make sense.”
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And so, Estrus was born. It’s a record that reflects numerous conflicts that Lo has experienced within herself in recent years, the sound of her rediscovering and embracing confidence in herself.
Navigating her thirties, marriage, and all the elements of life as a woman finding her way in the public eye, Lo admits that Estrus is a response to the expectation that, at a certain age, a woman is meant to have everything in her life sorted.
“I realised a few things while I was making this album,” she says. “I’m a grown woman now, and I feel like I’m being told that my time to be messy, make mistakes… the time for self-exploration is up. I’m supposed to have all the answers, I’m supposed to know what to do.
“I don’t vibe with it at all, it’s not where I am at all in my life. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing! It’s written from a place of inner conflict. There’s a lot of contradictions and the feeling that yes, I’ve learned a lot, I’ve lived a lot, but I feel confident in myself.”
“Anytime I do something that belongs in the space of conformity… like, I’ve married a man and we live together in a house, it gets so celebrated!” Lo laughs. “She did something normal! We can relax, she’s not going to go off the rails. It’s like, maybe I still will!”
Releasing Estrus in 2026 has meant that Lo is adding to a strong year for pop and dance music coming out of Europe, specifically Sweden.
Artists such as Robyn, Lykke Li (two significant influences on Lo), and Agnes have released striking projects already this year, reminding audiences of the magic that seems so deeply embedded in songwriting coming out of this region of the world.
Lo is excited to be part of this current wave of female artists continuing to explore their femininity, strength, and liberation through music.
“Robyn has always been my number one inspiration. She, to me, is a pop artist with so much integrity,” Lo says. “She has so much taste. I’m always so impressed with what she’s doing, I love her new album [Sexistential]. It’s so amazing. I feel that these alternative pop girls and women who are coming through, throwing out the rulebook… it feels very much that we are controlling the space now.”
“There’s no big exec, A&R, standing above us saying, ‘You need to say or sing this, or else,'” Lo adds. “I’m sure it exists, but I feel like the power is with the artists right now in a big way. It’s hard to break through the noise without the muscle sometimes but I still feel that, if you build the fanbase and you make something that connects, you’ll make a moment with your fans where you both see one another. You can share that moment together. It’s so cool.”
Sharing moments of authenticity with her fans is part of Lo’s career that she treasures the most. The release of Estrus and her eventual return to stages with this album will reconnect the artist with her community in a way that only continues to uplift both.
While Lo notes how public perception of her image has changed across her career, one thing that has remained constant: the level of truthfulness shared between her and her global fanbase.
“When my songs were first starting to become popular, the conversation around me being ‘the messy girl’ was not at all positive,” she says. “Even though I’ve never really changed the way that I’ve expressed myself regarding sexuality, partying, whatever… the tone around it went from being a messy, bad girl who no one should engage with, to being a feminist icon! I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll take it. This is how I feel’!
“It’s cool to have been able to stand my ground, remain true to myself. It’s always going to rub some people wrong but for the most part, it’s been a beautiful journey. A lot of fans I meet will tell me that I’ve helped them accept themselves. I find that to be the most beautiful thing that someone can say.”
