"Sweet Smell of Success" Released: 13 January 2022
"Obnoxiously Talented" Released: 25 April 2022
Extreme is the ninth studio album by Swedish singer-songwriter Molly Nilsson, released on 15 January 2022.
Background
Regarding the album's title, Nilsson gave the following explanation:
I was thinking about the title Extreme right after I'd made Twenty Twenty. At the time, I just thought that it was kind of a fun title—a good working title to [remind myself to] be playful and not hold myself back. It turned into thinking of 'extremes' in this black-and-white, polarized society, and the struggles between all the different sides and all these different ways of thinking.[1]
Production
After the release of her previous album 2020, Nilsson went through a period of "creative depression".[1]Extreme was then "largely written" in 2019 and "mainly recorded" in 2020.[2]
Themes
Power has been noted as the central topic on Extreme.[3][4] In the album's promotional material, label Night School Records wrote: "It's a record about power. About how to fight it, how to take it and how to share it."[5]
Promotion
"Absolute Power" was released as the album's first single on 12 October 2021, along with a music video.[6] "Pompeii" was released as the album's second music video on 22 November 2021.[7]
Release
The album was released on vinyl, CD, and as a digital download.[8]
Extreme received critical acclaim.[15] In a positive review, Tim Sendra of AllMusic called Extreme "both Nilsson's most interesting album and a striking reboot", citing her experimentation with "new moods" and "new genres".[9] Jana-Maria Mayer of German Musikexpress characterized the album as a "romantic indictment of the Anthropocene" and praised Nilsson's songwriting.[13]
Sophia McDonald of Loud and Quiet, in a mixed-to-positive review, considered Extreme "an LP that is generally surprising in its trajectory" and noted its "nostalgic fun", but criticized it for a lack of "closeness" and "intimacy" to Nilsson in comparison with earlier works.[11]
The closing track "Pompeii" was highlighted by Raphael Helfand of The Fader as a "happy-sad classic" that serves as a "rallying cry for resilience in the face of impossible odds".[2] The track was also praised by German Musikexpress.[13]
