Stryke alight

Tove Styrke has been building up her pop profile with the unusual tactic of releasing a string of bloody great singles. Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking To You was a bracing culture-clash between acid house and swing jazz. Borderline was a lilting Swedish reggae ballad. Neither of them was as bad as my descriptions make them sound.

Her new single, Ego, is another change of direction, albeit a more mainstream one. Powered by chugging marimba line, it has a delicately sugarspun chorus, that belies the furious lyric: "I want to hold you but you're untouchable... You're too tied up in your ego."

It goes a little something like this.



Ego is from Kiddo, Tove's first album since signing to RCA. According to the singer, the title is inspired by her favorite movie character, Kill Bill’s Beatrix Kiddo.

"I like the word 'kiddo.' It's playful, it's the name of my favorite movie character and I've been called it for ever and ever for better and for worse.

"If I were to describe the album in one sentence I'd say that it’s playful, inspired by movies (especially Kill Bill) and that the songs are very personal to me."

If you're a regular listener to Heat Radio (and who isn't?) you might be hearing this single more often than you'd expect. Their programme manager explains why in this blog...

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