Zara Larsson – Midnight Sun

It’s difficult not to interpret Zara Larsson’s fifth album as a course correction.

Arriving only a year after ‘Venus’,a record that saw the Swedish star caught between delivering a visionary pop opus and preserving commercial vitality, ‘Midnight Sun’ feels like a return to form. Where its predecessor strained under that balancing act, this album offers no overarching concept or grand conceit, just wall-to-wall bursts of irresistible scandipop.

At just under 32 minutes, it’s Larsson’s shortest outing to date, and you immediately sense an artist trusting her instincts, fully uninhibited. Lead single ‘Pretty Ugly’ is the prime example: its feisty gang-vocal hook is destined to spend its time lodged in listeners’ heads for much of 2025.The track brims with an air of unfettered abandon, a feverish rush of house piano stabs and maximalist production. ‘Midnight Sun’ is better still, where glittering hooks and club beats converge during its chorus to serve up something relentlessly euphoric and hypnotic.

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Reuniting with longtime collaborator MNEK – the British singer has production credits on each of the ten tracks here – has clearly reinvigorated Larsson, and her confidenceis palpable throughout. ‘Crush’ and ‘Eurosummer’ brilliantly fuse modern pop aesthetics and mass appeal with lean, astute writing, meanwhile reverberating walls of synthesizers bathe ‘Saturn’s Return’ in an opulent, hallucinogenic hue.

Ultimately, ‘Midnight Sun’ is Zara Larsson honing in on what she does best with laser focus: starry-eyed, joyous Scandi-pop built to ignite dancefloors as easily as festival sing-alongs.

8/10

Words: Luke Winstanley

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