Album Review: Forever Neverland by MØ

In the time between Forever Neverland and her debut, No Mythologies to Follow, Karen Marie Ørsted has been all over the place. After writing and featuring on Major Lazer 's "Lean On", she spent a few years just dropping features, singles and an EP while she found her way to a full length. But one thing was never lost: her ability to write a solid gold banger.

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Karen Marie Ørsted wasn't always the gleaming pop star who contributed vocals to Major Lazer's 'Lean On'. Coming from Copenhagen's punk scene, debut album 'No Mythologies To Follow' was a twitchy, left-of-centre delight that swerved traditional pop conventions. Since then, she's released a handful of singles and EPs, all pointing in different musical directions.

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This intriguingly offbeat artist is best known for her Major Lazer collabs, but this bold album proves she's much more than someone to lean on Equally inspired by the Spice Girls and Sonic Youth, MØ is an intriguingly offbeat artist with a very modern, streaming era problem: her biggest hits by far have been features on other people’s songs, namely the Major Lazer bangers ‘Lean On’ and ‘Cold Water’. So, while the Oceana crowd know her voice - sweet and scratchy like honeycomb - they probably don’t know how to pronounce her distinctive Danish name. This second album begins a little bit tentatively, with the tribal pop songs ‘Way Down’ and ‘I Want You’.

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Karen Marie Aagaard Ørsted Andersen is commonly known as MØ, a Danish singer and songwriter known worldwide for features on some of the world's most streamed tracks including 'Lean On', with Major Lazer amongst various other co-writes and features throughout the years. MØ meaning "maiden" or "virgin" in Danish comes from the initials of her middle and last name and strikes as a contrast to the fierce and raspy pop queen that can be heard on her second studio album, Forever Neverland. Behind the scenes MØ's talent as one of the most iconic writers in the industry on some of the most successful songs of the past few years is a testament to this release.

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Karen Marie Ørsted, also known as MØ, is a good example of the indie and mainstream worlds colliding. She had been making a name for herself as a singer-songwriter in the early 2010s, but was catapulted to fame with her appearance on Major Lazer & DJ Snake's worldwide smash Lean On. Since then she has been in demand as a pop vocalist, but aside from some more glossy production not much has changed in her solo output.

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Following the release of her 2014 debut No Mythologies to Follow, Danish pop singer/songwriter MØ hit it big with a pair of singles courtesy of electronic dance group Major Lazer, topping charts around the world with multi-platinum anthems "Lean On" (2015) and "Cold Water" (2016). As her international star continued to rise, she recentered with the When I Was Young EP in 2017 before finally issuing her official sophomore effort, Forever Neverland, which arrived in late 2018. A serviceable dose of sleek and stylish dance-oriented Scandinavian pop -- whose upbeat sonics belie the introspective lyrics -- Forever Neverland is mostly homogenous, bleeding together in a gauzy, synth-washed haze, with sonic cohesion provided by producer ST!NT (Carly Rae Jepsen, Demi Lovato, Zara Larsson).

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MØ's debut album, 2014's No Mythologies to Follow, was all about savoring adolescence, a quest the Danish electro-pop singer born Karen Marie Ørsted captured in glittery production and wailing vocals. So what do you do at age 30 when you've made a career out of singing about being young, so much so that your Instagram handle is "momomoyouth"? Four years later--the unit of time typically used to measure a stint in high school or college--Forever Neverland is about the way adulthood yanks us out of former selves, and the way we thrash and fight against it. The title, it goes without saying, is an homage to Peter Pan.

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The Lowdown: MØ is Danish, and her name is pronounced somewhat like an American might pronounce the sound a cow makes. Audiences were exposed to her massive melodies after she featured on the worldwide smash hits "Lean On" and "Cold Water" by Major Lazer. MØ comes from the Scandinavian school of songwriting, where every part of the song is a hook, and no tune is ever hummable enough.

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Danish popstar MØ - or Karen Marie Ørsted - most known for her Major Lazer collaboration - 'Lean On' and Justin Bieber's 'Cold Water' as well as solo singles such as, 'Kamikaze', 'Final Song', 'Don't Leave' and 'Nights With You', has finally released her second album - one that has been a long time coming. Following her perfectionist formula of tightly coiled instrumental with muffled, minimalist beats, and raspy vocals, 'Forever Neverland' manages to explore uncharted territories with its offbeat sound. With an overarching theme of nostalgia and not wanting to let go of the past, the album follows its short intro tentatively, exploring tribal pop songs with 'Way Down' and 'I Want You', both of which while urging you to bop along and dance still seems like it will remain hiding in shadows of the ever popular 'Lean On'; and as the theme of the album suggests that the singer may not move on from her past music.

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