ListenLykke Li

A few weeks ago, after a single listen to Lykke Li’s trappy, R. & B.-inflected elegy “Hard Rain,” I blocked off the morning of the release for her new album, “So Sad So Sexy.” A breakup song—or, rather, a breaking-up song—“Hard Rain” intensifies like a summer shower. It begins with a sprinkle of cello and Li’s crystalline voice. This is the calm before the so-sad storm. “If you like the feeling of a hard rain falling, I have a seaful, I can give you an ocean,” she sings.