Lykke Li

File under "better late than never," I'm just getting into Lykke Li, now, after her album has been floating around blogs for over a year. My skepticism for hyped-up artists has burned me this time because I am (a little bit) in LOVE with her. "A Little Bit" is strikingly romantic, for all of it's stark minimalism in sound. "For you I'll keep my legs apart/ and forget about my tainted heart" with lines like that and production as clean as this, she deserves to be HUGE. 

Her new video of "Tonight," recalls Andy Warhol's technique of sitting someone down in a chair, turning the camera on and just walking away. The result is fascinating because of the subtlety of how someone reacts in that situation. "Tonight" is a stark, striking variation on Warhol's idea, and lets her belt out this song in the best arena possible and it's minimalism draws out an amazing amount of emotion from her, as you can see her almost break down to the words she's singing. 

Her 2008 album, Youth Novels, is consistently excellent and popped up on almost every 2008 Year end critics list, with very good reason.