Lady Wood

Lady Wood was inspired by "the chase, the rush, the peak, and the downfall [of the] emotional rollercoaster" Lo experienced since her extended play Truth Serum and debut studio album Queen of the Clouds were released in 2014.[5] The album consists of two chapters: "Fairy Dust", which details the euphoria surrounding a gratifying encounter, and "Fire Fade", which highlights a subsequent sense of self-awareness.[6] Lo announced Lady Wood is to be the first half of a two-piece album, with the third and fourth chapters "Light Beam" and "Pitch Black" to be included on Lo's third studio album in 2017.[6]

On 17 August 2016, Lo revealed that her second studio album would be titled Lady Wood and would be released on 28 October.[7] About the title, Tove Lo recalls "writing the bridge of the title track, and thinking that I wanted to say, like, 'You're turning me on,' but I wanted to find another word. Like, what's the word for a female hard-on? I think I heard it in a movie somewhere—they were just like, 'You give me wood.' And I was like, 'Girl wood, or, Lady wood! Yes!'"[8]

The lead single from the album, "Cool Girl", was released on 4 August 2016,[9][10] reaching number 15 in Sweden and number 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100.[11]

"Influence" was released on 9 September 2016 as the first promotional single from the album. The song features American rapper Wiz Khalifa. "True Disaster" was originally released on 14 October 2016 as the second promotional single. The song was sent to US contemporary hit radio on 15 November 2016 as the album's second single.[12]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[19]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[20]
DIY	[21]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[22]
NME	[23]
The Observer	[24]
Pitchfork	7.0/10[2]
Rolling Stone	[3]
Slant Magazine	[25]

Lady Wood received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 74, based on 16 reviews.[19] Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain praised the album as "the darkest, weirdest, most irresistible pop record of the fall" and wrote, "While Lo's lyrics are stark and intensely personal, the music sounds engineered for the masses."[22] Writing for NME, Nick Levine commented that "[s]ome listeners may not warm to Lo's persona, but her songwriting skills are difficult to fault", adding that "she keeps the hooks coming throughout as her hip, minimal electro-pop quivers, shimmers, pulses and throbs."[23] Alim Kheraj of DIY noted that "Lady Wood isn't an album made for radio or easy digestion. The hooks are there but, like Tove herself, they aren't succumbing expectations."[21]

Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone opined that the album "doesn't have anything that hits quite as hard as 'Stay High (Habits)' [sic] and 'Talking Body' [...] But its minimalist tech-house sound has a darkly textured allure".[3] Heather Phares of AllMusic remarked that "despite its provocative title, [Lady Wood] often feels more straightforward than Queen of the Clouds did."[20] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine concluded that "Lady Wood is admirably lean and tightly focused, and though it doesn't boast confessionals on the order of Like a Prayer's, it offers a peek inside the psyche of a smart, burgeoning young star."[25] Katherine St. Asaph of Pitchfork stated that "Lady Wood is short, but Lo finds ample darkness to plumb."[2] The Observer's Kitty Empire expressed that "Lady Wood is, if anything, classier than Queen of the Clouds. But it might not sell so well, in that it lacks the sleazy catnip—the sex clubs, the self-abasement—displayed in the latter's defining singles."[24]

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes[26] and Tidal[27]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a remixer

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lady Wood.[26]