Icona Pop’s ‘This Is… Icona Pop’: Stream The Full Album

Sam Lansky | September 16, 2013 9:03 am

The unexpected and meteoric success of Icona Pop‘s “I Love It” is as much a blessing as it is a curse: The pressure was on for Swedish songbirds Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo to repeat that song’s widespread impact — but the too-on-the-nose “Girlfriend” didn’t land well with audiences, and the other follow-up single, the ferocious “All Night,” still has yet to crack the Hot 100 on U.S. radio. That’s a shame: Their debut international LP This Is… Icona Pop (cobbling together a few songs from their self-titled debut, which was only released in Sweden, with some new tracks) is probably the most pristine straight pop release since Carly Rae Jepsen‘s excellent Kiss, all fizzy production, infectious choruses and inventive lyrics. Even aside from the aforementioned singles, the hooks come strong and sharp, most memorably on the soaring “In The Stars” and the heartbreaking ballad “Just Another Night,” a sort of comedown counterpart to the euphoria of “I Love It,” which comes across like a lost ABBA classic.

It’s tough to sell an album on the merits of one incredible single, however great, but their LP has teeth, and they deserve much better than being known as the girls who crashed their car into a bridge. Stream the album over at Pitchfork and find out why, then buy it when it drops on September 24. 

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