7/10

Despite proving herself with her progressive and forward-thinking attitude towards pop music with her brilliant debut album 'Queen Of The Clouds' in 2014, Swedish frontwoman Tove Lo turned up the sexually explicit attitude on her previous full-lengths 'Lady Wood' and 'Blue Lips' to deliver a shocking but altogether vibrant collection that saw her move away from her glossy beginnings in order to explore a more adult perspective to the commercial sound. And as she now returns with her fourth LP 'Sunshine Kitty', it is clear that she is still fascinated with the brutal honesty of relationships, even if the graphic detail remains more quashed this time around.

Tove Lo has always seen herself as a more mature pop artist, regularly adopting the mainstream direction but usually flooding her lyrics with the complex and gritty truth of relationships that many other singers would gloss over or ignore altogether. This has not only given her a niche in the scene, but allowed her audience to understand that there is a more frank and honest woman at the helm, and this is what we get when listening to 'Sunshine Kitty'. While it has dropped plenty of the x-rated material of her last release, she still looks to develop herself as an ever-evolving frontwoman that uses her pop production as a lens for her to speak plenty of truths about the messy world in which we live.

A strong return from the Swede who always seems to be ahead of the crowd. 'Sunshine Kitty' may have the aural sensibilities of a radio-friendly pop release, but scratch below the surface and you'll find a wealth of fascinating and identifiable stories that keep this record engaging and recognisable throughout.