Zara Larsson’s “Lush Life” is the antidote to summer love
The summer romance is one of those pop culture myths — best immortalized in Grease, it’s person meets person, a fast tumble into bae status, and then when the season ends, a parting of ways. But the reality of that last part is oftentimes glossed over, or simply left unexplored. Enter: Zara Larsson’s “Lush Life.”
17-year-old Larsson, whose cheeky online persona has helped establish her as a person to watch outside of her native Sweden, released new single “Lush Life” a few weeks back, and now it’s picking up steam. It’s not hard to see why: Larsson’s vocals eerily shadow the kind of sung sting made popular by artists like Rihanna, but the production is all Swedish pop magic — you can hear the same sort of electronica-based production for fellow Swedes Tove Lo and Tove Stryke (and to a lesser extent, early Lykke Li). And like those artists, Larsson benefits from crafting her lyrics around one sentiment, linked to a hook that can’t be forgotten.
What exactly is the “Lush Life” of the song? As Larsson puts it, “I live my day as if it was the last / Live my day as if there was no past / Doin’ it all nite, all summer / Doin’ it the way I wanna.” It’s an acknowledge of the freedom associated with summer, but also the fact that these things tend to be ephemeral: “It was a crush / I kept saying I’mma stay in touch / But that thing went bust / So I gave it up.” Luckily, she’s not too hung up about it: “Now I’ve found another crush / The lush life’s given me a rush / Had one chance to make me blush / Second time is one too late.”
It’s a refreshing take on the whole “summer love will last forever” thing, and also a pretty fun jam on its own; take a listen below.
Related reading:
Tove Lo’s new music video is giving us all those doomed love feels
Listen up: Tove Styrke is our fave new musical artist on the rise
(Image via.)
