MØ - Forever Neverland

Karen Marie Ørsted wasn’t always the gleaming pop star who contributed vocals to Major Lazer’s ‘Lean On’. Coming from Copenhagen’s punk scene, debut album ‘No Mythologies To Follow’ was a twitchy, left-of-centre delight that swerved traditional pop conventions. Since then, she’s released a handful of singles and EPs, all pointing in different musical directions. It all comes together on ‘Forever Neverland: she’s never looked more comfortable in her own skin. Opener ‘Way Down’ is a hedonistic delight, existing on the fringes of the dancefloor, and across the album she dips her toe into slow, acoustic anthems (‘Blur’), soaring road-trip soundtracks (‘Sun In Our Eyes’) and slow-burning bangers (‘If It’s Over’). Yes, there’s nothing of the size or scale of ‘Lean On’, but in unapologetically treading her own path, MØ’s beginning to carve a new identity all of her own.