“Said by 20, I’d be fillin’ up stadiums,” Zara Larsson sings on ‘Saturn’s Return’, a reflective gem from her fifth studio album, ‘Midnight Sun’. “Didn’t happen, so I changed the deadline.” This appealing blend of pluck and vulnerability ripples through Larsson’s dazzling dance-pop LP, which charted moderately in most territories when it dropped last September. Soon afterwards, though, the seasoned Swede began to gain cachet again after several years of semi-hits (2019’s ‘Don’t Worry Bout Me’, 2023’s ‘Can’t Tame Her’) and bops that should have been bigger (2019’s ‘All The Time’, 2020’s ‘Love Me Land’).
By December, with the album’s euphoric title track picking up streaming heat and her decade-old banger ‘Lush Life’ back on the charts, Larsson felt confident enough to declare herself “out of the Khia asylum”. That she had the nous to reference pop stans’ favourite shorthand for cultural irrelevance and general floppery only underlined the way she had levelled up. Larsson has always had principles – she turned down a Eurovision performance in 2024 due to Israel’s involvement in the contest – but now her playful side was also coming across.
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Having been grafting since she was 10, when she won the Swedish talent show Talang, Larsson isn’t about to rest on her laurels now. Instead, she’s seeking to secure her revival with ‘Midnight Sun: Girls Trip’, a deluxe edition featuring a fresh remix of every track from the original. Each has a feature from a different female artist or two, which allows Larsson to show off her great taste and sisterly credentials.
This year, she turbo-charged her comeback by jumping on a remix of PinkPantheress‘ drum ‘n’ bass hit ‘Stateside’, so it feels fitting now that PinkPantheress sings on and co-produces a remix of ‘Midnight Sun’, which accentuates the original’s breakbeats by adding a nostalgic sample from DJ Fresh’s 2008 club classic ‘Gold Dust’. But not every remix here is quite as inventive, or necessarily an improvement. Despite the addition of a siren-like synth riff and a sprightly Shakira, the new ‘Eurosummer’ lacks the kinetic thrill of the original.
However, most of the reimaginings on ‘Girls Trip’ are at least interesting. Tyla is suitably sultry on ‘Hot & Sexy’, while Robyn adds ribald lines to ‘Puss Puss’: “I can get you off in a whole ‘nother language.” Toronto-based DJ-producer Bambii helps to turn ‘The Ambition’, which now features vocals from Madison Beer, into an aromatic tropical house banger. And a swirling, six-minute version of ‘Saturn’s Return’ featuring its co-writer, Danish-Chinese artist Helena Gao, has elegant echoes of ‘Ray of Light’-era Madonna.
Coupled with the undimmed effervescence of the original album, ‘Midnight Sun: Girls Trip’ is a journey worth taking. And for Larsson, the doors to the “Khia asylum” are rapidly fading from sight in the rear-view mirror.
Details
- Record label: Sommer House / Epic
- Release date: May 1, 2026