This March, after a few years penning songs for artists like Icona Pop, Cher Lloyd and Girls Aloud, Swedish rising star Tove Lo unleashed her debut EP "Truth Serum," a six-song collection featuring the rising, gold-certified "Habits (Stay High)." Thanks to that success, her debut full-length, "Queen of the Clouds," will be released September 30th in the U.S. on Island Records. Now, the 26-year-old pop singer is back with another stunner, one that flips the substance abuse script of "Habits," the album's second single, "Not on Drugs."
Lo insists, she's back on her feet and reaching for the stars—she's not on drugs, she's just in love, and she has the post-Icona Pop beat drop to prove it. "I'm up with the kites in a dream so blue," she sings. "I live in the sky/ You come live here, too." There's a crushing weight to the song's chorus that roughly approximates the overwhelming, brain-altering infatuation Lo's singing about: if love hit you with this much force, you'd probably seem high too. It's probably better for your health to keep this one on replay, and after hearing it once you won't complain. "Not On Drugs" is so good, it's addictive. It's an epic pop song, no matter how you ingest it.
With "Not on Drugs," she's basking in love's mind-melting glow rather than using to escape its aftermath. "'Not On Drugs' is - like many of my songs so far - about love," Stockholm's Lo told MTV UK. "At least it's about the happy kind of love where you feel like there's nothing that can get you higher than the person you're with and have these feelings for. I guess the best way to listen to it is when you're in that state of mind; I think if you're heartbroken it might be a bit hard to relate to it. So if you've just met someone you love you should listen to it then... On repeat!"
The Kaleidoscopic backgrounds, warped images and fluorescent smoke make the video feel anything but trippy. It finds the Scandi babe dancing in a white room that is filled with both computerized animation and colorful, real-life smoke bombs. "I choked on the paint, the smoke made me half blind and here is my three-minute trip that shows the intensity and weirdness I feel when falling in love," Lo told Rolling Stone, via e-mail. "The main theme we had in mind while making this video was 'What just happened?' It was quite amazing making something with the happy piece of my heart this time! There's always the happy part before the broken heart. Here's mine, about the good kind. Come join me in my little love trip."
With "Not on Drugs," she's basking in love's mind-melting glow rather than using to escape its aftermath. "'Not On Drugs' is - like many of my songs so far - about love," Stockholm's Lo told MTV UK. "At least it's about the happy kind of love where you feel like there's nothing that can get you higher than the person you're with and have these feelings for. I guess the best way to listen to it is when you're in that state of mind; I think if you're heartbroken it might be a bit hard to relate to it. So if you've just met someone you love you should listen to it then... On repeat!"
The Kaleidoscopic backgrounds, warped images and fluorescent smoke make the video feel anything but trippy. It finds the Scandi babe dancing in a white room that is filled with both computerized animation and colorful, real-life smoke bombs. "I choked on the paint, the smoke made me half blind and here is my three-minute trip that shows the intensity and weirdness I feel when falling in love," Lo told Rolling Stone, via e-mail. "The main theme we had in mind while making this video was 'What just happened?' It was quite amazing making something with the happy piece of my heart this time! There's always the happy part before the broken heart. Here's mine, about the good kind. Come join me in my little love trip."
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