Zara Larsson - Midnight Sun

Over a decade since their first collaboration, Zara Larsson and MNEK are reunited, with the British multihyphenate anointed as co-creator of this fourth record from the Swedish star. Where 2015’s earworm ‘Never Forget You’ Frankenstein-ed Zara’s R&B-indebted vocal control with elaborate EDM, across ‘Midnight Sun’ the pair similarly forge a maximalist, electronic pop future. Its title track alone is gutsy and boundless. It’s comprehensive in its variations of electronica, dance, Scandi-pop and R&B, creating a colourful body of work. Its forward-thinking, lush alive-ness cements Zara as a largely-overlooked genre VIP; a Main Pop Girl that has tirelessly and thanklessly worked beyond the spotlight to pave the way for a more seamless rise for her dance-pop successors. 

“Puss puss / ’97 on the number plate,” she spits on the post-pop Brazilian funk cut ‘Hot and Sexy’, capturing the record’s cocky and maximalist party-girl intention; later, ‘Eurosummer’ does precisely what it says on the tin; and lead single ‘Pretty Ugly’ tears apart Pussycat Dolls-esque hip hop beneath raw cheerleader-y aggression. It’s just as committed to her Scandi roots, too: “I wanted to write about a Swedish summer where the sun never goes down,” she has asserted in recent press material. Elsewhere, ‘The Ambition’ is a bubbly confessional on fame and love; the cutesy ‘Puss Puss’ comes backed by hyperpop synths; and the airy alt-pop of ‘Saturn’s Return’ stands out at the record’s middle as an intriguing step into something new entirely. Near non-stop, ‘Midnight Sun’ is entirely sun-drenched, exuberantly formulated pop that’s both scaffolded by MNEK’s nostalgic production style and the Scandi-pop-meets-dance future that Zara has readily paved.