Album Review MØ - Motordrome

Perhaps most instantly recognisable as the voice behind global club smashes ‘Lean On’ and ‘Cold Water’, ‘Motordrome’ sees MØ fully establish herself as a solo artist in her own right. Devoid of any guest features, her third studio album instead embraces her dark-pop sound, from the ballad-adjacent ‘Goosebumps’ to the euphoric pop powerhouse ‘Live To Survive’. Named for the circular motor racing tracks, the album celebrates breaking out of a set routine. Fittingly accompanied by a reinvention of sorts, it places MØ at the centre of her own career. A self-affirming fierceness runs throughout ‘Motordrome’, bookended by the opening mantra of kindness over everything else and the closing resilience of rolling with the punches. “It’s a brand-new day,” she sings, “teaching me to be bold”. This confidence bleeds into each of the album’s ten tracks, at once pop-ready but with a distinctive edge. Less dancefloor filler, the songs are instead destined to soundtrack sunsets and late-night parties. Each provides three minutes of pop prowess, a driving beat pushing the vocals forward. “I think I lost a little bit of myself over the years without really knowing it had happened,” the singer recently told DIY. Having taken some time away, reinforced by the isolation of recent global developments, on ‘Motordrome’ she returns fresh and reinvigorated. No longer simply living to survive, MØ is having fun being herself.