Blue Lips is the third studio album by Swedish singer Tove Lo. It was released on 17 November 2017 by Island Records. Blue Lips is considered the second half of a two-piece concept album that describe "highs, lows and ultimate demise of a relationship." Its chapters "Light Beams" and "Pitch Black" succeed the chapters "Fairy Dust" and "Fire Fade" from her previous album Lady Wood. In addition to the return of songwriter-producers such as The Struts, Ali Payami and Joe Janiak, the album features new collaborations with Alex Hope and Lulou, among others. Daye Jack is the only featured artist on the album. Musically, the album has been described as "sharply conceived dance-pop" and it is noted to follow the "hypnotizing electro-pop vein" of the preceding album. A short film of the same name was released on 19 October 2018 to accompany the album.
Background and recording
Tove Lo's previous album, Lady Wood, was released on 28 October 2016 to positive critical reviews and fair commercial success, with it eventually becoming her highest-charting album in the United States to date. In press interviews in support of the album's release, Tove Lo alluded to another album of thematically similar material slated for release the following year that was tentatively titledLady Wood: Phase II. In early 2017, Tove Lo began the Lady Wood Tour in further support of the album, and during press interviews she said she was working on new material to be included with the portion that was already recorded during the Lady Wood sessions. She explained to Billboard, "There's a lot of songs that I wanted on , but I didn't want to cram in 20 songs... so I decided to divide it into a double album, and release the second half a little bit later on". The Blue Lips track "Bitches", originally titled "What I Want for the Night ", was previewed through Tove Lo's short film Fairy Dust in October 2016 and a live version was released through Spotify in November 2016. Tove Lo also previewed the track "Struggle" during her performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2017. During the months leading up to the album's release, Tove Lo said that thematically Blue Lips would be a "dramatic" and "highly emotional" sister to Lady Wood, and it would have two contrasting chapters: "Light Beams" and "Pitch Black". The album's official title was announced in conjunction with its lead single "Disco Tits" on 7 September 2017. The album's artwork was released on Tove Lo's social media on 31 October 2017.
Release
Tove Lo began teasing the release of her third studio album since the release of Lady Wood in 2016. During January 2017 she suggested that the album would be released in the spring of that year, but on 31 October 2017 she confirmed that Blue Lips would be officially released on 17 November 2017. On the night of the album's release, Tove Lo hosted a release party concert at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, New York City.
Singles
The lead single "Disco Tits" as released on 7 September 2017. It reached #55 in Tove Lo's native Sweden, and topped the United States Dance Club Songs Chart. Tove Lo announced a remix of "Bitches" featuring Charli XCX, Icona Pop, Elliphant and Alma as the second single from Blue Lips. It was released on 7 June 2018.
Critical reception
Blue Lips received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 74 based on six reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Frank Guan of Vulture called Blue Lips "the best album of her career" and said that "it's indisputable that the tracks on Blue Lips hit harder than their predecessors". Will Hermes, in his short review of the album for Rolling Stone, stated "Like much of Tove Lo's work, it's admirably uncensored, but may leave you craving a shower, however close to home it lands". Cameron Cook of Pitchfork noted that "Blue Lips is not a straight-up disco record, but Lo uses that genre's soft focus sheen to recall an era grown from the sexual liberation of the '60s, while sheltered from the excesses of the '80s". He praised the "LIGHT BEAMS" section of the album but criticized "romantics", stating that ""romantics," with its trendy trap beats and distorted vocals, pale slightly next to the wild ride of the album's first half".
