How a Swedish fishing village and a lack of advice unlocked Tove Lo's new album 'Estrus'

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Set us as preferred Nearly every summer, Tove Lo finds herself itching for a change.Typically, the sweltering season will prompt the Swedish singer-songwriter to do something new, like dye her hair black or switch up her personal style.But even in the midst of this annual metamorphosis, she tends to find her way back to the same place: a small Swedish fishing village called Torekov.Between recovering from her first heartbreak and overcoming burnout from her debut album “Queen of the Clouds,” the remote town has offered her a seaside refuge ever since childhood.

Yet, with the making of her latest studio album “Estrus,” Torekov officially solidified itself as a mainstay in the singer’s artistic process.“It’s kind of an emotionally triggering place for me, both good and bad,” Lo said, as she sank farther into the booth at Thai Angel on a humid August afternoon.“I needed a second to be in a place without distractions, where I’m more like a person than an artist … It almost offers a creative force field that I need to enter every process now.”Torekov, as Lo describes it, is what the neighborhood in “‘The Truman Show’ is like before they hit record.” It’s somewhat of an idyllic place where the seashore is lined with wooden houses; sheep graze along the grassy cliffsides and residents wander around the shops in bathrobes and clogs, right after their morning swims.

Music Legs McNeil doesn’t come across as sentimental.However, when Lo visited during the off-season, its emptiness was “ominous” — unintentionally stirring her inner want to cause chaos.

In true Tove Lo fashion, the surrounding serene village made her turn to the familiar sounds of heavy club electronica, further building on the contradictory ethos that comprises “Estrus.” “Every song feels different.It’s like every feel...