So Sad So Sexy

Lykke Li announced So Sad So Sexy on 19 April alongside the release of the first two singles from the record, "Deep End" and "Hard Rain".^[5] She released the third single "Utopia" on Mother's Day with an intimate video directed by Clara Cullen.^[6] On 29 May, she released two more singles, "Sex Money Feelings Die" and "Two Nights" featuring Aminé.^[7] On 10 April, Li shared a trailer for the album featuring a snippet of the title track, which Clash called a "silken pop groove that display[s] Lykke at her effortless best".^[8] Under the Radar called the 90-second album trailer "mysterious" and noted Li appearing in different settings wearing various outfits.^[9]

Li played various European and North American festivals including the Osheaga Festival in support of the album in mid-2018.^[10]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.8/10[11]
Metacritic	71/100[12]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
The A.V. Club	B−[14]
Consequence of Sound	B[3]
The Guardian	[15]
The Independent	[16]
The Irish Times	[17]
NME	[18]
Pitchfork	6.4/10[4]
Q	[19]
Rolling Stone	[20]

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At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 71 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[12] Ilana Kaplan of The Independent wrote, "Li's latest foray in pop is a brilliant display of growth, both personally and professionally. She once again proves that there's no such thing as boring in her music."^[16] Consequence of Sound's Grant Sharples said, "Although the trap-influenced style wears thin at times, so sad so sexy is a superb reinvention of Lykke Li."^[3] Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic said, "Li's defeat and grief are palpable, yet she delivers with such grace and control, which offers a glimmer of hope for the fellow romantically downtrodden. With production to match, so sad so sexy succeeds in providing a relatable therapy session for love's final gasps."^[13]

In a less positive review, Exclaim! critic Jenna Mohammed said the album "is an unusual blend of pop and R&B inspiration, but it's not a memorable album. Lykke Li scratches the bare surface of the talent she possesses, making you wish there was just a little more energy."^[1] Similarly, Claire Biddles of The Line of Best Fit wrote, "The album's repeated motif of smoking and cigarettes as an addiction metaphor feels try-hard rather than smart. The best tracks are those that transpose the drama of Li's best work to the album's more explicitly pop context."^[21] Slant Magazine's Josh Goller wrote, "So Sad So Sexy is a sleek, homogeneous pop-oriented album that feels both conceptually half-formed and technically fussed-over."^[22] For Pitchfork, Stacey Anderson wrote that "with festival-ready hooks and trap-inspired production, Lykke Li delivers another record about an unraveling romance and the fraught sexuality of its final moments with diminishing returns", and that "her traumas are too often muted by abstraction and unspecificity ... it is beginning to lose its impact".^[4]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies a vocal producer
• "Hard Rain" features background vocals from Rostam Batmanglij.
• "Deep End", "Jaguars in the Air" and "Better Alone" feature background vocals from Ilsey Juber.
• "So Sad So Sexy" features background vocals from Andrew Wyatt and Ilsey Juber.