Crack

First things first: Lykke Li is pronounced Loo-kuh Lee. Not Likely Lie, not Lucky (though Lykke does mean good fortune in Swedish), Luggy, Lukey, and especially not if you’re a Bristolian; ‘Ark at Lee’, alongside the billion other ways I’ve heard it mispronounced (Even on Radio One, and you’d think they’d do their research before an interview).

What’s in a name anyway? Maybe it’s down to the tongue-twisting nature of her alias (real name Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson) why we don’t see Li rubbing shoulders with the likes of Duffy, or her compatriot Robyn, in the UK Pop Charts. Hell, I’d listen to anything on Wounded Rhymes over fucking Mercy any day. It’s even more difficult to understand, taking into consideration the sheer amount of tour posters in ticket stores across Europe and North America with ‘SOLD OUT’ slapped across the withering glare of Li’s new art direction: Darker, world weary and wounded.

On arrival, Trinity was already rammed for support act Sarah Blasko, who by this point was winding down her set nicely with her warm, melancholic and soulful vocals.

Li eventually appeared through the smoke, accompanied by a billowing black sheet from ceiling to stage and the tribal pounding of drums, looking fierce in black cape, leather hot-pants and shiny high tops. Opening with Jerome, she quickly worked through her back catalogue and tracks from the new record, with Dance Dance Dance, I Follow Rivers, I’m Good, I’m Gone and Get Some getting the best responses, pausing to shout out to The Big Pink before playing her excellent ballad cover of their 2009 track, Velvet.

Clearly still hurting from the partially documented love difficulties that underpinned the writing process of Wounded Rhymes, Li later took a moment to sympathise with anyone who had shared experience of the breakdown of love due to vast expanses of ocean and distance, before launching into Unrequited Love.

The totally unexpected introduction of the shimmering arpeggiated chords of The Knife’s Silent Shout was a bittersweet highlight (all approximately one and a half minutes the band played). This was a shame, because the band had the keyboard part completely mastered, and if any vocalist could do Karin from The Knife justice, it’d be Lykke Li. A credit to Trinity, the sound was spot on from the offset, but particularly noticeable during that section, for obvious reasons.

After finishing with I Know Places and Sadness Is A Blessing, Li - as witheringly brazen as her aforementioned press shots - announced to the crowd, "I feel nothing". It’s a safe bet she was in the small minority at that moment, and most leaving the Trinity felt nothing but love for her and that performance.



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Words: Artbeats

Photos: Lora English

http://www.myspace.com/lykkeli

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