Review: Lykke Li’s ‘I Never Learn’

Sweden’s Lykke Li delivers a full fusion of deep, soul-searching lyrics on I Never Learn, her third studio album and an artistic zenith for this talented singer.

Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone is a minimalist guitar-and-vocals-only track. Li’s voice strains in all the right places and pleads for love in others, meshing nicely into a raw display of emotion. The title track carries more production sheen, but retains an authentic feel as Li sings about falling too deeply in love.

There are no weak songs here, and the best comes on No Rest for the Wicked. Ghostly piano stabs echo until an avalanche of percussion falls over it all. It’s a poignant song about fighting to keep a relationship alive as it tears apart, territory that sounds personal when Li sings it.

In the end, it is love that is at stake on I Never Learn. Lykke Li adroitly captures the struggle that one must endure to keep love at the risk of losing it forever.