Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
Critic Score
Based on 34 reviews
2011 Ratings: #72 / 1031
Year End Rank: #28
User Score
Based on 434 ratings
2011 Rank: #67
Liked by 38 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Arts Desk
Frank, full-bore pop on the second album from Sweden's one-woman musical tornado.
100
Entertainment Weekly

While her 2008 breakout, Youth Novels, was quirky and coy, Wounded Rhymes is hungry, dark, dirty.

90
God Is in the TV

Somewhat wrongly categorised previously as the latest in a line of pretty-if-a-little-predictable Swedish pop artists; it’s nevertheless a relief to report that Li’s appropriately titled follow-up ’Wounded Rhymes’ has seen the sweet, coy girl of before go all grown up and mature on us.

90
PopMatters

This is a seriously heavy and seriously excellent album.

90
No Ripcord

In moving firmly away from the happier pop tone of her debut Lykke Li has nonetheless made a better record.

90
Slant Magazine

The combination of Wounded Rhymes’s noisy factory ambience and Li’s frayed persona is subtle yet striking, building slowly and purposefully without ever reaching heavy-handed bombast.

85
Beats Per Minute

The album serves as a bit of a soundtrack for anyone who’s managed to retain a romantic outlook past the age where such a thing is likely realistic, and the bitter struggle of rediscovery that follows.

84
Spectrum Culture

Gorgeous, unwavering and complex, Wounded Rhymes is an instant companion, lover, enemy and shoulder to cry on.

83
Pitchfork

Li proves a rich and compelling character in her songs, which are dark but also complex, contradictory, and, thank goodness, still rough around the edges.

83
A.V. Club
At her core, this new snarling, burned Lykke Li is unfamiliar, perhaps even to herself, but it’s to our benefit. We get to meet her all over again.
80
The Skinny

Perhaps the results aren't quite so poppy as with its predecessor, but Wounded Rhymes is an unfurling joy in every other way.

80
Gigwise
'Wounded Rhymes' dives between the sinister and ethereal. Although at times bewildering, its brave combination of nomadic rhythms, 60s ballads and Jamaican folk, plays out to form a well-rounded second album to be proud of.
80
Rolling Stone
As for all the catchy tunes: That’s just a Swede, exercising her birthright.
80
Clash
While opener ‘Youth Knows No Pain’ and the feisty single ‘Get Some’ both display Li’s ‘don’t-fuck-with-me’ sassiness, ‘Wounded Rhymes’ really takes off when she allows her vulnerability to leak.
80
The Guardian
On Little Bit, the hypnotic centrepiece of her debut, she was "a little bit in love", while here "sadness is her boyfriend", the album recorded in the aftermath of an unrequited love affair.
80
Uncut
The 24-year-old Swede's breathy sighs and relentlessly lachrymose lyrics feel overly mannered at times, but the sublimely spooked alt.folk lament "I Know Places" reveals an eccentric and original talent behind all the self-pitying melodrama.
80
Mojo
Swedish chanteuse returns with guns blazing.
80
The 405
Lykke Li does an outstanding job in creating a successfully composed second album. The album is a better, more mature, worldly, dark and foreboding listen which still manages the maintain the catchy, pop approach of her debut.
80
Q Magazine

Wounded Rhymes is the moment Lykke Liu has edged ahead of the pack. And she still understands the value of a mighty percussive wallop.

80
Consequence of Sound

Li’s explosion of confidence and fearless experimentation add together to create an album that is sensual and immense, as substantial as it is enjoyable.

80
SPIN

Li’s new album, Wounded Rhymes, is equal parts seething ice princess and lonely snowwoman, vacillating almost track by track between fury and despondence over a scotched relationship.

80
AllMusic

It's an inspired, rugged, smart, emotive, coolly modern piece of indie pop, and an improvement on Lykke Li's debut in just about every respect.

80
musicOMH

At other times, the album works magnificently; more so than anything on her breakthrough debut.

80
Tiny Mix Tapes

Rhymes is smarter and more mature than 2008's Youth Novels in nearly every conceivable way.

78
Paste

Youth Novels was a cool little hand-drawn doodle done in pencil—this is an oil painting, rich with color and more vivid detail.

76
Coke Machine Glow

Wounded Rhymes‘ moments of true daring are few, but it’s the first indication that Li’s turning a critical eye on her own style—and that she’s got a knack for reinvention.

75
Pretty Much Amazing

Wounded Rhymes is a leap forward for Lykke Li, and perhaps, a stepping-stone to an unqualified masterpiece. Her very own Extraordinary Machine.

70
NME
‘Wounded Rhymes’, while a bold statement, doesn’t quite strike the same lugubrious groove. But while we bemoan flash-in-the-pan pop stars, it’s encouraging to see someone like Lykke sparking attention.
60
The Sydney Morning Herald
Li has had her heart broken and these wounded rhymes are her kind of catharsis.
60
The Irish Times
Now based in Los Angeles and living a reasonably solitary life, Li has turned to loneliness for inspiration, and you can hear how well she channels this into songs that reference all manner of despair.
60
The Telegraph
The result is never maudlin, but big, bouncy and entertaining.
60
Under the Radar

Like Youth Novels before it, Wounded Rhymes is a mixed bag—the expression of an artist still finding her voice.

60
Drowned in Sound

The mild disappointment of this record can be firmly classed as a first world problem in itself.

40
NOW Magazine

On her sophomore album, Swedish pop singer Lykke Li can’t seem to shake the feelings of restlessness and heartache that marked her debut, Youth Novels. But this time around she’s less ambivalent about what it all means.

tokyolovehotel
93

On Lykke's second album, she impresses with more elaborate, mature sounding and breathtaking, amplitudinous dark atmosphere. Almost every song is truly brilliant, especially "I Follow Rivers" and "Get Some".

80

Nice

LisbonBih
74

hold on, let her cook

80

Nice

LisbonBih
74

hold on, let her cook

rara2018
80

Yet another absolute banger of an album from Lykke Li. Even though I rated this the same as her debut, this is objectively a stronger album, both in its lyrics and its sound. Songs like Get Some are witty and danceable, while Sadness Is a Blessing makes me feel like I’m on tumblr all over again. Also, I would be remiss to not mention the iconic song that is I Follow Rivers (you know you’ve made it when you get a Glee cover of one of your songs). This is an album I’ve revisited ... read more

Purchasing Wounded Rhymes from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Track List

1Youth Knows No Pain
2:59
89
2I Follow Rivers
3:48
93
3Love Out of Lust
4:43
82
4Unrequited Love
3:11
79
5Get Some
3:22
89
6Rich Kids Blues
3:01
81
7Sadness Is a Blessing
4:00
82
8I Know Places
6:26
84
9Jerome
4:22
78
10Silent My Song
5:24
77
Total Length: 41 minutes
Comments
Sign in to comment
No one has said anything yet.