TOP NEW SONGS: TOVE STYRKE - SWAY

Tove Styrke's hottest, newest single will make you "Sway"!

There must be something in the water and the hoarfrost of Sweden that inspires Swedish Pop musicians to create the most sparkling, pristine Pop that is still soulful and emotional. From the plasticine disco of Abba to contemporaries like MØ, Zara Larsson, Tove Lo, and Lykke Li, Scandinavia is quickly becoming an unlikely savior for artful Pop Music that is still personal, musically adventurous, and polished as an Ikea flatware set.

TOVE STYRKE - SWAY

Tove Styrke has been a rising star among the Northern Lights of Sweden's Pop glitterati. With "Sway," she aims to cement her position among the Scandipop firmament. It's well deserved, as Styrke's soaring vocals and carbonite beats stand up against the best from that region, past, present, and likely future.

A lot has happened since Styrke dropped her last full-length, the rapturously received Kiddo which poised Styrke as the next breakout star. Much has changed in Tove Stryke's world, but thankfully, she's remained her sense of innocence and youthful optimism even as she joins the ranks of the world's biggest Pop Stars.

Most of Tove Styrke's new album, Sway, of which "Sway" is the newest and last single before the album release, revolves around love and relationships. Many of Sway's tracks will deal with the intricacies and confusion of love as you mature into adulthood. "Sway" is simply a love song, however, as she told Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 radio program. "'Sway' is "one of the most romantic songs" on the record. "The album is like a collection of little love stories, and some of them are like not romantic at all... [this one's] just nice and in love -- I love it so much."

We Are: The Guard do, too, we really do. Tove Styrke's glimmering, smooth club pop is one of the best blends of pop music and r&b that we've heard so far this year. It's along the lines of some of Sia Furler's most recent output, but chiller, more subdued, less histrionic. While vocal melisma will also be a hallmark of the biggest and brightest pop stars, there is something to be said for subtlety and confidence. "Sway" remains subdued and laid-back, meaning it actually works as a love song, as well as a soundtrack for your next club night.

We Are: The Guard are so, so excited to hear Sway in its entirety! Congratulations and well done, Tove Styrke! 

J. Simpson occupies the intersection between criticism, creativity, and academia. Based out of Portland, Or., he is the author of Forestpunk, an online journal/brand studying the traces of horror, supernatural, and the occult through music, fashion and culture. He plays in the dreamfolk band Meta-Pinnacle with his partner Lily H. Valentine, with whom he also co-founded Bitstar Productions, a visual arts collective focused on elevating Pop Culture to High Art.