Tove Lo has never been one to follow the rules, and she’s definitely run wild with her fourth studio album ‘Sunshine Kitty’ as she keeps adding songs to it months after it’s initial release. 

‘Sadder Badder Cooler’ is the last track to make up the ‘Paw Prints Edition’ of the record, but at this stage she really could just keep rolling with it and no one would be mad.

The synth lead track is layered with gritty and moody hip-hop influenced beats that are then contrasted by these super-pop synths and melodies that intertwine so perfectly. There’s a real DIY feel to this song which feels so timely with everything that is happening in the world. It’s a garage pop song on steroids and it’s uniquely cool.

Channeling the emotions surrounding a toxic break-up, she walks aways with her head held high and a lot of tears falling down her cheek. And she’s okay with that because, well, as she sings during the pre chorus, “Heartbreak pays bills. You lose, I win”. 

But it’s the vocoder sample of her singing “I’m sadder, I’m badder, I’m cooler, yeah” that will quickly get stuck in your head and be trapped there for a few hours. However with the atmospheric building of this hook through the clapping beat, I was waiting for it to climax into something bigger and it just never did.