Tove Lo has always had a taste for new highs, bare truths, and indelible hooks. On her latest LP, she flirts with acoustic pop, experimental sounds, and more collaborators than ever, letting light in to some of her new perspectives.

The palm-polished perfection of “Glad He’s Gone,” the lead single from Sunshine Kitty, somehow finds a way to sound like the album title. It’s the epitome of signature Lo lyricism, with straight-talking one-liners and delectable hooks tightened under razor-sharp production. The lens of the narrative has changed, though—she’s giving advice to a friend after a breakup, and pulling no punches with the realist’s view of things.

“Never no tears for that sucker,”

she proclaims defiantly over exuberant production that feels like she’s reaching through the airwaves to yank you towards some sun-drenched dancefloor. “Cover the basics, it's pretty easy / He's a bitch with some expectations,” she sings leading into a tongue-in-cheek pre-chorus practically begging for singalong status at the party.

She’s again opening her album with a standout party anthem, like the booming heartbeat of Lady Wood’s “Influence” and underground smash “disco tits” of follow-up Blue Lips, but this time around she’s found a few new friends at the party.

Tove Lo became an international name with “Habits,” a hazy ode to brutally candid reflection that opened with

“I eat my dinner in my bathtub, then I go to sex clubs

Watchin' freaky people gettin' it on

It doesn't make me nervous, if anything, I'm restless”

Yeah, I've been around and I've seen it all”

The record’s wicked-catchy hook, and trippy slow-motion remix, effectively introduced the sad banger to the mainstream. Lo has been perfecting the art of contradictory themes across her four LPs, all intentionally broken into halves with intros and interludes such as “THE SEX / THE LOVE / THE PAIN,” (2015 debut Queen of the Clouds), “Fairy Dust / Fire Fade,” (2016’s Lady Wood), and “LIGHT BEAMS / PITCH BLACK,” (2017’s Blue Lips).

Lo has always been equally engrossed in what it means to bask in the high and crash through the comedown, always analyzing the duality under the haze of neon lights and unsubtle innuendos. The most interesting metamorphosis throughout her work, though, is her gradual change in focus, and the resulting metamorphosis in production.

Tove Lo’s still losing herself between the crests of revelries and relationships, only this time the lyrics linger on the small signs. She’s tangled between bed sheets and club beats, at once coyly asking lovers to let go of fresh breakups (“Stay Over”) and helplessly hating an ex’s new arm candy (“Really don’t like u”). Tove Lo’s had the reputation of being the saddest girl at the party since her debut, and that’s largely due to her blurred lines between the party’s beginning and end—she’ll lament about the duality of a bad high and a broken heart often in the same song.

Sunshine Kitty sees Tove embrace collaborator culture like never before. Whether it’s a response to the current genre-bending crossover trends in music today, Charli XCX-style, or a sign of new direction, her embrace of the shapeshifting collaboration has paved way for several standout tracks.

Some mesh well within the bounds of Kitty, like the smart and sticky “Really don’t like u,” featuring pop royalty Kylie Minogue, but others poke the flow more abruptly, like the tropic percussion in “Equally Lost,” featuring Doja Cat, or the Jax Jones-assisted “Jacques,” a sleek and nonchalantly-delivered house banger. The latter feels more like a standalone single, and although it’s an undeniably-danceable earworm, it doesn’t stick any harder than “don’t like you,” yet feels significantly more distant, thematically and sonically, from the rest of Kitty.

“Jacques” is closest to “Are U gonna tell her?,” the Mc Zaac collaboration that examines the state of a side-piece relationship through the lens of a parking garage TRON-scape. (Seriously, it sounds like someone instrumentalized an abandoned industrial lot, rendering its graffiti through the lens of some futuristic rave.)

Tove has arguably been one of the biggest forces in bringing more than one emotion to the party (Robyn brings catharsis to the club by comparison), but as more pop artists come to contemplate the complex course of a party in fresh forms, Tove is now challenged with keeping a fresh perspective.

There’s more room for infatuation on Sunshine Kitty, but the record doesn’t just ignore the darker corners of the party—Tove instead calibrates her response to them, leaning more into questioning the uneasy moments than reveling in them, effectively finding more space for satisfaction.

Sunshine Kitty ends in bliss, with “Anywhere u go” soaring over generalized lyricism on the wings of oscillating synth waves. The production acts as a case study of weaker Tove tracks—strong sonics often save her from staleness, with nearly every naked melody on Kitty memorable even without lyrics. The track is memorable for more than that, though—it’s a marked change in the evolution of Tove Lo, with her recent LPs having the habit of (no pun intended) closing with Tove still reeling in the come down as hazy lights flicker on (“WTF Love Is,” “hey you got drugs?”).

Tove doesn’t forget her attested ethos, though—she echoes the end of the party on second-to-last “Mistaken,” a bare and reflective nod to previous closers, but doesn’t end the album with its regretful thinking. “I think you're sleeping with me, dreaming 'bout her / I hope I'm mistaken,” she wails between cracked falsetto, sounding stronger than ever after a vocal surgery scare.

Tove has characterized her voice’s recovery in three key changes—on Queen of the Clouds it was “husky,” as if “running on its last fumes.” She found a “clear, light” voice after vocal cyst removal on 2016’s Lady Wood, flittering between strength and vulnerability in 2017’s Blue Lips as she still struggled to regain ground post-op. “The songs feel almost a little more effortless,” she says of Sunshine Kitty. “I have all the control and power back.”

By the end of its 40-minute, hook-heavy sun streams, you’ll believe her.

Standouts: Glad He’s Gone, Really don’t like u (feat. Kylie Minogue), Mistaken

Tove Lo Finds New Light in 'Sunshine Kitty'