Youth Novels

Ignore the person who says this is not for over 20's, I am late 30's and love this album. It is full of great tunes, very catchy with strong beats. It is best described as electronic pop, but I think it will strongly appeal to some Hip Hop heads too. It is from Sweden but lyrics are in English.
Buy it!!!

This CD was not for me. Not my era~ I think if you are over 20, you'll hate it.

Youth Novels is singer Lykke Li's first major US debut. Stand out tracks include I'm Good, I'm Gone and Little Bit. I hope this album blows up, her voice is absolutely stunning. The sparse instrumentation on a lot of the tracks definitely works to her advantage! Pick this album up if you're a fan of upbeat, mellow, female voices.

Since the introduction itunes I have found that my attention span in listening to whole albums is on the short side. Come to think of it, I don't think that I have bought a CD in its entirety in a couple of years!! I love this album! Great to listen to... Great style and energy!

Youth Novels (2008, LL Recordings) Lykke Li's first studio album. ***1/2

In 2007 I became very tired of minimalism. It had been around since the late 1990s, and only few bands were able to do it successfully, namely blues-based bands such as the White Stripes and the Black Keys. There were others of course, but they seemed to be the only ones who had it down pat. And even then I wasn't crazy about it; Icky Thump, while still an exceptional album, ranked as one of the Stripes' weakest outputs. At the same time, wonderfully flourished albums like Neon Bible were sonically epic in every sense, and that was the direction that I had been waiting for.

And now in 2008, we've been seeing less minimalism in favor of bigger sounds. That doesn't always make things better, but it was a nice change from the norm. Li, however, seems to have missed the memo, and has actually put out one of the few truly great minimalist indie electronic albums (assuming there's more than this one). It's dance music for the kids who are too cool to dance. Youth Novels is disjointed, and it tends to sputter more than it stands solid. Things don't kick in until "Let It Fall," a very simple Prince-esque groove with lapping vocals. Even after this moment, it doesn't always work. The next great moment doesn't come until the robotic "Complaint Department," and appropriately it meanders until the end. There is no bad material here, what's here is just uneven, and Li is merely inconvienced to have a debut that's not quite as proper as it should be. We'll see where she can go from here, because while it's a promising start, the genre she's adopted as well as her sound don't lend to a whole lot of growth. (Let It Fall, Complaint Department, Breaking It Up)