Lykke Li’s power-ballad-heavy I Never Learn is a divisive album. It won her a lot of new fans but also alienated some of those who fell in love with her as more of an indie-pop singer circa 2008 debut album Youth Novels. She’s changed a lot stylistically, and that seems very intentional. Li told The Daily Telegraph, “I cannot stand my first album. It is so bad. I sucked.” She also compared her music career to a heroin addiction:

It is the only thing that feeds my soul. If I wasn’t doing this I’d probably be dead. Some people do heroin, I have my music… It is the most beautiful gift of all. Everything that people criticise when you’re a child – “you’re so sensitive, you’re so complicated” – is a great gift as an artist. All of a sudden you find yourself in this world with other artists where you’re accepted, and that’s all we ever want: to be accepted.

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