Zara Larsson’s ‘Midnight Sun’ is her best body of work yet

Recommended tracks: “Midnight Sun,” “Crush,” “Saturn’s Return”
Artists you may like: Tate McRae, Jess Glynne, KATSEYE

Zara Larsson told Rolling Stone back in June that she wanted to be the biggest pop star on the planet — even if just for a moment. While the Swedish singer-songwriter has been in the spotlight for over a decade with global hits such as 2017’s “Symphony” with Clean Bandit and 2015’s “Never Forget You” with MNEK (also a producer on this record), her most recent efforts failed to match her early success. With the release of her fifth studio album, Midnight Sun, it feels as though she is about to change that narrative.

The LP opens full of energy with the title track, setting the tone for the rest of the album. “Midnight Sun” transports you into a sunny dream you don’t want to wake up from, with trance-inspired production and Larsson’s hypnotizing voice; more specifically, that vocal run on the chorus. On the second track, “Blue Moon,” she keeps the party going with another club-ready song in which she sings about blissful moments with a romantic partner.

“Pretty Ugly,” the lead single, arrives like a kick in the door as Larsson chants the chorus: “Have you ever seen a pretty girl get ugly like this? / Messy like this? / Losin’ her shit?” It sounds like a rebellious cheerleader anthem for women who are tired of gender expectations. In the verses, she sings, “Everybody’s tellin’ me to sit there really pretty / But I’m feelin’ like I wanna cause some trouble in the city tonight / Fuck the ladylike, more like crazy-like.”

While “Pretty Ugly” could be considered a feminist statement, the follow-up, “Girl’s Girl” flips the script on what that term normally means. Larsson playfully questions her own loyalty as she fantasizes about a girlfriend’s partner, singing, “I wanna be a girl’s girl / But what happens when a girl’s girl wants the boy? / I know that she’s my friend, but I just can’t avoid / The way I feel about you.”

“Crush” is by far the highlight of the project, an irresistible percussive pop jam that peaks with a showstopping bridge and an unexpected change in chord progression. Here, Larsson gives us the catchiest chorus of the album as she laments about not being able to be with her crush for fear of ruining her current relationship.

Reminiscent of Don Omar’s “Danza Kuduro” and Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina’s “Stereo Love,” the next track, “Eurosummer,” brings in new sonic textures with its accordion instrumentation. Likewise, in the confidence booster “Hot & Sexy,” which samples an audio clip of reality TV star Tiffany Pollard from Celebrity Big Brother, the production takes a turn in the second half of the song with a Brazilian funk break.

Before becoming too repetitive with the lyrical themes, Larsson switches things up with “The Ambition,” showing vulnerability perhaps for the first time in the record. Although it’s far from being a ballad, the singer opens up about how success has dictated her happiness and how comparison to other artists in the music industry feels inevitable. In the verses, she sings, “Raised on validation / Consumed by aspiration / Numbers meaning more than words / But what’s it worth?”

In “Saturn’s Return,” she pulls us in even closer by reflecting on how her life and aspirations have changed as she approaches her Saturn return, a term used in astrology to refer to the turbulent times of a person’s late twenties. Larsson shows emotional maturity by recognizing the uncertainty that comes with becoming an adult, singing, “And it feels so good to know I don’t know what I’m doing / And I love that I’m free in my naivety, I won’t lose it / Could be wrong, could be right / But this song is mine.”

“Saturn’s Return” would have been the perfect closing to the album, as Larsson’s heavenly falsetto in the end, followed by a cosmic-like synth pad, mirrors the dreamy feeling throughout the record. Instead, “Puss Puss,” the final track, while a fun and flirty encore, feels deeply misplaced and somewhat unmemorable.

Nonetheless, Midnight Sun is a beautifully executed electro-pop LP with a distinctive yet familiar sound, which makes it feel both fresh and classic at the same time. The project proves that Zara Larsson might be well over a decade into her career, but she is still pushing herself to sonically evolve as an artist by exploring different genres within the dance-pop sphere. As a result, she delivers her strongest and most cohesive body of work yet while simultaneously finding a sound that feels true and unique to her, a hard feat to achieve in this new age of pop stars.