Get over your break-up blues with Lykke Li

Get over your break-up blues with Lykke Li

(Image: courtesy of Lykke Li)

Whether or not you’ve heard of her, Lykke Li is in your iTunes library. Well, sort of. The Swedish pop siren is the female singer backing up Bono on “The Troubles,” the last song off Songs of Innocence—you know, that U2 album that Apple force-fed the world earlier this month. Of course, Li has more to her name than a liner note on a digital release that most people swiftly deleted. The 28-year-old musician has won increasing critical acclaim with each of her three albums; Pitchfork’s Ian Cohen describes I Never Learn, her latest, as “both spartan and expansive,” a break-up album that refuses to “crawl into a hole and die.” Witness Li live at the Kool Haus this week alongside Mapei, a fellow Swede whose music similarly pushes the boundaries of radio-ready pop. Afterward, you might even consider un-deleting those U2 tracks—or at least one of them.

Tues. Sept. 30. $35. Kool Haus, 132 Queens Quay E., 416-869-0045, collectiveconcerts.com.