“It was a motherfucker to make”

Lykke Li has revealed details about upcoming new album ‘The Afterparty’, and told fans that it may be her last.

The Swedish singer-songwriter has been dropping hints about new music for a while now, and suggested that the follow-up to 2022’s ‘EYEYE’ could be arriving later in 2026.

Details about the record, including release date, remain scarce, however, Li recently held a private listening party in Los Angeles and let a few fans hear new material for the first time.

Speaking to the crowd on the night, she revealed that the new album is called ‘The Afterparty’ and that, after a difficult period making it, she has decided that it may be her last.

“Let’s talk about the album. It was a motherfucker to make,” she began. “It’s called ‘The Afterparty’, and the way I make albums is I sit in my car and I have a matcha with a plastic lid that I feel so guilty about.”

She went on to say that she had a feeling of uncertainty about the world when she was working on the project – particularly when it came to topics including “Trump” and “AI” – and added that it would make her feel like she had woken up with “a huge hangover”.

@tomasmier

Lykke Li says her next album ‘may be her final’ album ever during listening session in LA 🥹 #lykke #lykkeli @Lykke Li #theafterparty #popmusic

♬ original sound – tomás mier

“[Right now] it feels like it’s 4am and the sun is going to rise. That is what I was working with. It’s a journey through the night and it’s meant to be listened to in one go,” she continued, also saying that the record feels like “my lower self talking to whatever’s up there”.

“This is my sixth album, and maybe my final.”

More details about the ‘The Afterparty’ are expected to be shared soon.

Lykke Li’s last album, ‘EYEYE’ was given a four-star review from NME when it was released in 2022, and praised as a “record that breathes, sighs and will leave you lost in the same dazed revery that these tracks were born from.”

Later that year, Li shared a reimagined version of her track ‘Highway to Your Heart’ from that album, titled ‘TЯAƎH ЯUOY OT YAWHӘIH’, and spoke to NME about how her outlook on the world was shaping her approach to new material.

“‘EYEYE’ was a very introspective, introverted journey. This new work is more extroverted, a bit impulsive and chaotic,” she said. “We’re [the world] in a really dark place, and I don’t know if there’s any turning back? But that’s also very much the circle of life – to destruct, to die, to be reborn.

“I don’t know exactly where we’re at in that cycle, but it seems like we’re heading somewhere pretty dark.”

Since sharing her last album in 2022, Li has gone on to share the anthemic standalone single ‘Midnight Shining’, put her own spin on Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’, and co-written the Miley Cyrus song ‘Beautiful That Way’, which was recorded for the 2025 Pamela Anderson film, The Last Showgirl.

Later this summer, Li will be joining The Last Dinner Party, Rachel Chinouriri, Keo and Florence Road in supporting Wolf Alice at their biggest headline concert to date at London’s Finsbury Park. Buy any remaining tickets here.