Today, internationally acclaimed beloved artist and trailblazer Lykke Li releases her haunting new single ‘Knife In The Heart’, the latest offering from her forthcoming sixth studio album The Afterparty, arriving May 8 via Neon Gold Records/Futures.
A stark and hypnotic meditation on emotional survival, ‘Knife In The Heart’ captures Lykke at her most visceral. Anchored by droning EBow textures, ghostly orchestration, and a chant-like chorus, the track unfolds like a brutalist lullaby, intimate and anthemic, as Lykke’s unmistakable voice cuts through the darkness with conviction.
Speaking on the song, Lykke Li shares:
“This is my brutalist nursery rhyme anthem — the emo girl in me, fully unleashed. I had my son and his friend sing the choruses because the juxtaposition of their voices against the EBow just created such a powerful sonic landscape, somewhere I’ve never really been before. A world totally collapsing in front of us and all we really have left is our humanity. My dream is to hear a whole football stadium chanting: ‘This Life This Life is a Knife in the Heart.’ To me, a pretty accurate description of what it feels like to be alive right now.”
Where her earlier single ‘Lucky Again’ introduced the existential energy of The Afterparty, executive produced by Lykke Li and longtime collaborator Björn Yttling, ‘Knife In The Heart’ plunges deeper into the album’s emotional underworld, turning collective unease into anthem, calling us to sing together in our shared humanity while the world feels like it’s coming apart. Written in Los Angeles and recorded in Stockholm with a 17-piece string orchestra, The Afterparty blends disco-glowing strings, flute flourishes, and what Lykke calls “apocalyptic bongos” with lyrics that confront shame, desire, and existential uncertainty. At just 24 minutes, the album is both expansive and exacting, a dance record for the end of the world, capturing the strange clarity that arrives once the party is over.
Across nearly two decades, Lykke Li has carved a singular lane in modern pop defined by emotional extremity, melodic precision, and fearless intimacy. Since her breakout debut Youth Novels (2008) and the global success of ‘I Follow Rivers’, she has continued to evolve through the critically acclaimed Wounded Rhymes (2011), I Never Learn (2014), So Sad So Sexy (2018), and the immersive audiovisual album EYEEYE (2022).
THE AFTERPARTY TRACKLIST
Not Gon Cry
Happy Now
Lucky Again
Famous Last Words
Future Fear
So Happy I Could Die
Sick Of Love
Knife In The Heart
Euphoria
LIVE DATES
10th April – Coachella Music Festival – Indio, CA
17th April – Coachella Music Festival – Indio, CA
22nd May – Vivo Rio – Rio de Janeiro
24th May – Parque Ibirapuera – São Paulo
19th June – Metronome Festival, Prague
5th July – Finsbury Park – London^
10th July – Pohoda Festival – Slovakia (Headline)
19th September – Palacio de los Deportes – Mexico City, MX*
* w/Robyn
^Wolf Alice
THE AFTERPARTY – Track List
PRE-SAVE The Afterparty