Tove Lo Releases Sixth Studio Album ESTRUS
The album features focus track "source of life" with an official visualizer, as the ESTRUS World Tour continues.
Tove Lo has released her sixth studio album, ESTRUS, out now via Pretty Swede Records/Virgin Music Group. Primal, restless and emotionally unfiltered, ESTRUS pushes the contradictions that have always lived at the center of Tove Lo's music into sharper focus: euphoria and melancholy, desire and doubt, intimacy and independence, the body and the mind. Across 13 tracks of propulsive, emotionally charged electro-pop, she embraces those opposing impulses without trying to resolve them, capturing what it feels like to want everything at once.
Arriving alongside the album is focus track 'source of life,' a visceral final statement that distills the push and pull at the heart of ESTRUS. Moving breathlessly through opposing states — 'feral,' 'fragile,' 'numb,' 'ecstatic,' 'sad,' 'euphoric' — the track finds Tove confronting one of the album's most intimate tensions: the part of her that still wants to stay out all night against the part wondering whether it's time to stay home and have kids. Desire, fear, love and questions about the future collide as her body and mind pull in different directions, bringing the album's central tension full circle.
Speaking about ESTRUS, Tove Lo shares: 'I think this album is fing perfect. I wrote what I needed to write, not how I wanted to be perceived, and it feels like such an honest reflection of me — sexy, twisted, dark and full of contradictions. I'm so grateful to everyone who helped me bring it to life, and I feel incredibly lucky that I get to keep making music independently and on my own terms. I hope everyone who listens vibes deeply and sparkly with it — and I'll keep making music and touring until my tits are in my shoes.'
Following 2022's Dirt Femme, a period in which she went independent, got married and continued pushing into new creative territory — Tove found herself with more questions than answers. Eventually, she realized that not having the answer was the answer itself.
That unresolved tension became the foundation of ESTRUS. As Tove puts it on 'the bad one,' 'two things can be true.' Across the album, seemingly opposing impulses are allowed to coexist: happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain, freedom and commitment. ESTRUS charts the full experience — getting drunk, insecure and starting a fight; walking home at 6am with mascara running, coming down and wondering whether any of it was worth it, then doing it all again. Rather than stepping outside of the mess to offer perspective, Tove stays firmly inside it.
The process of making ESTRUS proved just as volatile as the emotions within it. Early on, Tove and longtime collaborator Ludvig Söderberg got drunk and began yelling at each other about everything they were going through. Somewhere in that frenzy, the shape of the album emerged: all of the contradictions, the constant fight.
Inspired by The Knife, Robyn and the Swedish indie dance music she grew up on, Tove Lo recorded the propulsive electro-pop of ESTRUS with Söderberg, alongside Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser (Addison Rae). The album was recorded across Los Angeles, Stockholm and a small fishing village in Sweden where Tove spent summers as a child and previously created parts of Dirt Femme. Returning there brought her back to where she was first formed, reconnecting her with memories of growing up, relationships, family, loss and the messier younger version of herself. The record also features internationally acclaimed Belgian artist Stromae on 'des fleurs,' its sole collaboration.
On the meaning behind ESTRUS, Tove Lo explains: 'Estrus is an animal in heat. It's primal. It's my mind and my body wanting different things, wanting everything. There's no good advice on this album... just a lot of feelings, no solutions.'
ESTRUS arrives following a run of releases that have gradually unveiled the album's emotional and sonic landscape, including lead single 'I'm your girl right?,' the Stromae collaboration 'des fleurs,' and the biting, cathartic 'DNH.' Together, the tracks offered an early glimpse at the album's range — visceral, body-moving pop paired with some of Tove Lo's most observant and emotionally exposed songwriting to date.
Tove Lo brings her ESTRUS World Tour to Brooklyn for a September 19 performance at Under The K Bridge with special guest Cobrah. The show follows stops in Nashville and Chicago earlier this week, where Tove kicked off the tour and brought her new album to the stage as part of a special run of North American release shows. The tour continues with performances in Toronto, Los Angeles and Mexico City, with Mallrat supporting across the North American dates. In November, Tove heads to the UK and Europe for her largest headline shows in the region to date, joined by Rose Gray, before bringing the ESTRUS World Tour to Australia in March 2027 for newly announced headline shows in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, supported by Salty. More information is available at tove-lo.com/#tour.
World Tour Dates
9/19 – Under The K Bridge – Brooklyn, NY Ψ Ω
9/23 – Coca-Cola Coliseum – Toronto, ON Ω
9/27 – The Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA Ω
10/01 – Pepsi Center WTC – Mexico City, MX Ω
11/05 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester, UK ≈
11/07 – O2 Academy Brixton – London, UK ≈
11/09 – De Roma – Antwerp, BE ≈
11/10 – L'Olympia – Paris, FR ≈
11/12 – AFAS Live – Amsterdam, NL ≈
11/14 – Columbiahalle – Berlin, DE ≈
11/16 – K.B. Hallen – Copenhagen, DK ≈
11/17 – Spektrum – Oslo, NO ≈
11/19 – Avicii Arena – Stockholm, SE ≈
3/01 – Fortitude Music Hall – Brisbane, AU ✦
3/03 – Margaret Court Arena – Melbourne, AU ✦
3/05 – Hordern Pavilion – Sydney, AU ✦
3/07 – Ice Cream Factory – Perth, AU ✦
Ω - Mallrat Supporting
≈ - Rose Gray Supporting
Ψ - With Special Guest Cobrah
✦ - Salty Supporting
Tracklist
a lot of feelings, no solutions
if I could I would
des fleurs x stromae
F.A.M.T
I'm the cake
the bad one
die for my art with a lonely heart
are we on a break
idiot
roomie
source of life
About Tove Lo
Tove Lo first broke through with her platinum-certified 2014 debut Queen of the Clouds, powered by the triple-platinum 'Habits (Stay High)' and double-platinum 'Talking Body,' immediately establishing her raw edge on a global scale. She has since balanced chart success with cult credibility, collaborating across genres with artists like Nick Jonas on 'Close,' Flume on 'Say It,' and Charli XCX, Alesso, Coldplay, and Major Lazer, while also emerging as a sought-after songwriter for Lorde, Zara Larsson, and co-writing Ellie Goulding's 'Love Me Like You Do.' Her subsequent albums — Lady Wood (2016), Blue Lips (Lady Wood Phase II) (2017), and Sunshine Kitty (2019) — expanded her emotional and sonic palette, the latter earning year-end acclaim and a GRAMMY nomination for 'Glad He's Gone.' More recently, she sharpened her perspective on femininity and independence with Dirt Femme, while continuing to explore club-driven intimacy on the collaborative HEAT EP with SG Lewis, reaffirming her place as a pop provocateur and restless creative force. ESTRUS, her sixth album and emo chic moment, pushes that emotional candor even further, leaning into the contradictions that have long defined her work — euphoria and melancholy, desire and doubt — without trying to resolve them. Balancing visceral, body-moving production with sharply observed writing, it captures the full spectrum of feeling in real time. Rather than offering answers, Lo stays inside the mess, continuing her core mission: making people feel everything all at once.
Photo Credit: Charlie Denis (high-res available here)
Photo Credit: Charlie Denis (high-res available here)
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...