The duo behind ‘I Love It’ returns with a full-length that strips away their trademark pop bombast for something darker and more introspective.
Icona Pop didn’t become famous for restraint. The Swedish twosome built their entire reputation on unfiltered, maximalist pop anthems designed to soundtrack your messiest moments. But ‘Ritual,’ arriving August 14, suggests they’re done playing that role. The album arrives as a deliberate deconstruction of everything that made them tabloid fixtures in the early 2010s.
Gone are the arena-sized synths and the wink-wink irony that once felt essential to their sound. In their place is a moodier palette that leans into production choices that feel almost restrained by their standards. The record cycles through influences ranging from industrial-adjacent textures to stripped-down songwriting that occasionally borders on genuinely melancholic. It’s a bet that their audience will follow them into darker territory rather than demand a greatest hits retread.
What’s genuinely surprising here isn’t just the sonic reinvention, though. It’s how completely Icona Pop seems to have rejected the persona that sustained them. There’s no desperation to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle chaos that defined their early run. Instead, ‘Ritual’ feels like the work of artists who’ve made peace with their legacy and moved on entirely. Whether that artistic confidence translates into the kind of cultural moment they once commanded remains to be seen, but at least they’re refusing to phone it in.
