Lykke Li has announced details of a new album, ‘EYEYE’, described as her “most intimate project to date” and an “immersive audiovisual album”.

Sharing the news today today (March 24), the album sees Li reunite with longtime collaborator Björn Yttling, their first time working together since her 2014 album, ‘I’ll Never Learn’. He had previously worked Li on her first three albums. ‘EYEYE’ is released on May 20 and you can pre-order the album here.

According to a press statement, the album was recorded in her bedroom in Los Angeles and is the musicians “attempt to compress a lifetime of romantic obsession and female fantasy into a hyper sensory landscape”.

It added: “There were no click-tracks, no headphones, and no digital instruments. The vocals were recorded on a handheld $70 [£53] drum mic, often in the moment of composition, giving the lyrics the still-beating sound of fresh heartbreak being whispered into your ear.”

Li said of the album: “I wanted the record to have the intimacy of listening to a voice memo on a macro dose of LSD.”

You can listen to the latest single off the new album, ‘No Hotel’, which was released yesterday (March 23) here:

‘EYEYE’ Tracklist
‘NO HOTEL’
‘YOU DON’T GO AWAY’
‘HIGHWAY TO YOUR HEART’
‘HAPPY HURTS’
‘CAROUSEL’
‘5D’
‘OVER’
‘ü&i’

A visual accompaniment to ‘EYEYE’ will be released alongside the record in the form of “seven visual loops”, revealing a larger narrative exploring the contining cycles of themes like love, addiction, relapse and obsession.

Directed by Theo Lindquist and shot on 16 millimetere film by cinematographer Edu Grau (A Single Man), the one-minute videos are “meant to be viewed as fragments of a larger story”. They also feature actor Jeff Wilbusch, from Oslo and Unorthodox.

Speaking about the films, Li said: “We wanted to capture the beauty and grandeur of a three-hour European arthouse movie, while making something native to modern media.

“The intention is to deliver the full impact of a movie in sixty seconds on a phone screen, which is where most of our emotional experiences happen now anyway.”

You can see a preview of one of the visual accompaniments here:

Li’s latest single follows Li’s 2020 return with new single ‘BRON’. The song – sung entirely in Swedish – was written by Li in collaboration with fellow Swedes, artist Little Jinder and composer Ludwig Göransson, most famous for his work with Childish Gambino.

It was the singer’s first new music since her ‘Still Sad Still Sexy’ EP in 2019, which served as an extension to her 2018 album ‘So Sad So Sexy’.

Reviewing ‘Still Sad Still Sexy’ upon its release, NME wrote: “As its title suggests, this six-track EP is essentially an extension of Lykke Li’s excellent 2018 album ‘So Sad So Sexy’. Featuring two remixes, two tracks in an ‘alt version’ and a couple of new songs, it’s inevitably a bit of a ragbag collection.”

Li has also announced details of a US tour this autumn in support of ‘EYEYE’. Find tickets here from April 1 and check out the dates below:

Lykke Li’s ‘EYEYE’ US tour dates are:

SEPTEMBER
26 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory
28 – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
30 – Los Angeles, CA – Ace Theatre

OCTOBER
3 – Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore
4 – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
6 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
8 – New York, NY – Apollo Theater

Last year, Li released a 10th-anniversary edition of her album ‘Wounded Rhymes’.

A digital reissue featured unheard demo versions of the album’s biggest hits including ‘Jerome’, ‘I Follow Rivers’ and ‘Youth Knows No Pain’, plus Tyler, the Creator’s remix of ‘I Follow Rivers’. The deluxe vinyl edition followed shortly after, with 16 tracks in total.