Tove Lo is wasted no time releasing new music. Given the fact that the Swedish pop star’s latest album, Dirt Femme, which featured “2 Die 4” and “True Romance,” was only released in October. However, as Lo embraces her musically independent status, she lets her creativity fly high with an emotionally alarming new single, “Borderline.”
Co-written along with fellow international pop sensation Dua Lipa, Jakob Jerlström, and Ludvig Söderberg, “Borderline” is a tale of a romance you’ll spend years and thousands of dollars of therapy recovering from. Opening with the lyrics, “Good people do bad things too / Pretend they don’t know, but they do / It takes one to know you’re mine / You and me, we are one of a kind, it’s true,” strap yourself in as you are being prepared to embark on the whirlwind this is intoxicating love.
The track produced by The Struts is a champion piece to Lo’s song “No One Dies From Love,” featured on Dirt Femme. However, the level of romantic desperation reaches an all-time as she sings, “I like to feel my bones when they crash into my heart / I like the taste of blood when you’re tearin’ me apart / I like to push you to the edge as long as you say you’re mine /Borderline,” on the pre-chorus.
By no means is this Lo’s first swing at a dark pop track, but “Borderline” is her most polarizing effort yet. As the stanza, “Tonight, for the rest of my life / I’m gonna be stuck on you / Hold on till I’m makin’ it right / No other love felt like you / I can’t give it up in this fight / I cross my heart and hope to die / Borderline,” repeats throughout the chorus you don’t know if you want to burn up the dance floor or host an intervention.
The song’s lyrics may be unsettling, but according to Lo, the collaboration process was nothing of the sort, writing on Instagram, “Thank you to the usual suspects I can’t live without @utz_utz_utz_struts & @jakobjerl and tons of love to Dua Lipa for trusting me with this baby! This is the very first song we wrote together and the very start of our friendship, so this feels extra special.”
To which Lipa replied in the comments, “iiiiiiihhhhh, I’m so excited!”
Listen to the whole track below.