Midnight Sun

Swedish pop phenom Zara Larsson has spent her career steadily building towards a point of pure dance-floor ecstasy, and her fifth album Midnight Sun represents the point where she’s seemingly finally reached the summit. Executive-produced by British dance-pop wizard MNEK, the follow-up to 2024’s VENUS is bigger, brasher, and more audacious than its predecessor. A clear point of comparison is the total head-rush pop of fellow Swede Tove Lo, only instead of neon-lit clubs, the locale is the sweltering, sandy beach environ evoked in the indelible “Eurosummer.” Hedonism is the name of the game across Midnight Sun: Just check out the zippy synths that stomp down the catwalk of “Hot & Sexy” or the low-riding and “Hollaback Girl”-recalling crunk of “Pretty Ugly.” Even the more subtle moments here—the skyscraping pop of “Blue Moon,” the perfectionist’s-lament sweep of “The Ambition”—feel jam-packed with sound, a true reflection of a pop star pushing her music to the limits and then some.