March 3, 20214 yr Author NME 4/5 Even Zara Larsson concedes that this album has been a long time coming. “You can always find excuses not to have a release, which is what I’ve been doing for, like, four years,” she told NME last month. Still, pop fans needn’t panic. Though ‘Poster Girl’ arrives nearly two-and-a-half years after its lead single, the faintly masochistic R&B bop ‘Ruin My Life’, it doesn’t sound tentative or desperate. When Larsson sings “this girl’s having fun” on standout banger ‘Look What You’ve Done’, you can tell she means it. Her third record begins with last year’s ‘Love Me Land’, a stunning dance-pop song that deserved to become a huge hit like Larsson’s 2015 breakthrough singles ‘Never Forget You’ and ‘Lush Life’, but somehow didn’t. “Never thought I would love again,” she sings blissfully. “Here I am, lost in Love Me Land.” This evocative line, which almost sounds ripped from a lost disco classic, introduces the album’s recurring theme: love in all its ecstatic, messy and sometimes frustrating glory. Nine tracks later, on the equally dreamy ‘FFF’, the Swedish star delivers an even more dazzling lyric, asking, “Is there a spark for us, or is it just purely platonic? / Is this a story arc?”, before concluding: “It’d be iconic.” ‘FFF’ turns out to be Larsson’s shorthand for “falling for a friend”, which as many of us know, can definitely be messy. Thankfully, even a loved-up Larsson is too cool to give us saccharine Valentine’s Day sentiments; the glistening, mid-tempo tune ‘Need Someone’ wrong-foots you slightly when she sings: “I’m happy, I don’t need your love / I’m happy, but I want you.” It’s the sort of subtly empowering line that really suits Larsson, a straight-talking pop star known for promoting sex-positivity and calling out toxic masculinity. And she isn’t afraid to get a little risqué, telling a distracted partner on ‘I’m Right Here’: “I could have two girls in this bed / Wouldn’t even get your attention.”
March 3, 20214 yr Author I’m thinking about doing an album listening party, would anyone be interested at all!
March 3, 20214 yr I’m thinking about doing an album listening party, would anyone be interested at all! Oo definitely!
March 3, 20214 yr I’m thinking about doing an album listening party, would anyone be interested at all! Yes!
March 3, 20214 yr Author There’s a couple of members going to do a Poster Girl midnight listen tomorrow and discuss track by track if anyone also fancies that!
March 4, 20214 yr Author The album is out in New Zealand. Third Review 4/5 DIYMAG Pure pop escapism. LABEL: BLACK BUTTER RELEASED: 5TH MARCH 2021 REVIEWER: EMMA SWANN RATING: 4 STARS If 2020’s biggest album (Dua, obvs) offered up killer dancefloor vibes at the precise moment it transpired nobody would be seeing one any time soon, that Zara Larsson’s third hits on the cusp of spring, with its increased daylight hours and promise of meaningful human interaction in the middle-distance is a stroke of genius. Take the Marshmello-produced, and curiously understated ‘WOW’, the vocal swagger of opener ‘Love Me Land’ or peppy title track. Or the breezy ‘Need Someone’, which makes like Calvin Harris’ ‘Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1’, and begs to soundtrack a road trip. The Young Thug-featuring ‘Talk About Love’ packing a nostalgic punch, with a chorus that hits in all the right places, the earworm-and-a-half that is ‘FFF’, or even ‘Look What You’ve Done’, disco-tinged both in string section and empowered lyrical melodrama. Musically rose-tinted, ‘Poster Girl’ is pure pop escapism.
March 4, 20214 yr I am actually quite confident this will be a better album than the mess that ended up being So Good. I'm rather looking forward to giving it a listen!
March 4, 20214 yr I don't really like this :( I don't think the album is bad, it's very nicely produced but it just comes across as very understated, a lot of the pop hooks she had on So Good aren't on Poster Girl, even songs like All the Time and Don't Worry Bout Me would've added a LOT of pop fun to the album. The songs that stood out to me were Need Someone (this is v good, I love this), Poster Girl, as well as Ruin My Life which I believe is the best on the album. FFF is a banger too.
March 4, 20214 yr Author I’m the complete opposite, I think it’s a massive improvement on So Good Current Rankings 01. Poster Girl 02. Love Me Land 03. I Need Love (This could go to #1) 04. Look What You’ve Done 05. Stick With You 06. FFF 07. Ruin My Life 08. Right Here 09. Need Someone 10. What Happens Here 11. Talk About Love 12. WOW
March 4, 20214 yr 'Poster Girl' is my favourite too, I can imagine it being a hit, I'd say 'I Need Love' is my 2nd favourite new track, I'm not blown away, but it'll get some streams from me for sure. 'All The Time' would have fit so flawlessly after 'Poster Girl' or 'I Need Love' :kink: I also feel like 'Don't Worry Bout Me' would have closed the album beautifully, so that's where I'll be placing those on my 'Spotify' version of the album.
March 4, 20214 yr Actually really excited to listen to this! 'Look What You've Done' has definitely revived my interest :wub:
March 4, 20214 yr I'm not gonna listen again until It's on UK streaming, for some reason I really wanna listen to FFF again, I feel like with a glass of something it'll go off... plus it's Drag Race UK night so I'm gonna be boozed by midnight. :lol:
March 4, 20214 yr I’m the complete opposite, I think it’s a massive improvement on So Good Current Rankings 01. Poster Girl 02. Love Me Land 03. I Need Love (This could go to #1) 04. Look What You’ve Done 05. Stick With You 06. FFF 07. Ruin My Life 08. Right Here 09. Need Someone 10. What Happens Here 11. Talk About Love 12. WOW Oh don't get me wrong, production wise it's MILES better than So Good, I just think So Good had a few more catchier hooks and it had a bit more vulnerability (Only You stays her best mid-tempo) at least the fuzzy vocal production is gone but yeah, I think So Good is better with the pop hooks.
March 5, 20214 yr 01. Love Me Land Never "loved" this. It's a bop though. Current ranking: 01. Love Me Land
March 5, 20214 yr 02. Talk About Love It's "cute", but that's about it for me. Current ranking: 01. Love Me Land 02. Talk About Love
March 5, 20214 yr Author Bop Me Land deserved to be so much bigger than what it was! Current ranking: 01. Love Me Land 02. Talk About Love
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