Lido - Peder (2020)

Lido has already enjoyed plenty of success in his short career. Barely out of his mid-20s, but already boasting production credits for artists such as Chance The Rapper, Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande, his stock is rising high in the industry. As an artist, Lido has seen little attention outside of his native Norway but perhaps Peder, his second studio LP in eight years, will prick up the right ears and give his music the exposure it needs.
Peder’s tracklisting runs as a playlist, a mixtape of encapsulated rainy day moods. It’s almost as if pressing play on this album drops you into the midst of a Instagram live DJ set. There are no peaks or centrepieces, simultaneously freeing and reigning in the scope of the music. This is polished and produced to a high standard, but also feels like it could have been recorded on a whim, one reflective autumn weekend. A rarely challenging listen, this album softens its edges for a consistently chilled vibe.

With songs about staying up all weekend and flying around the world for DJ sets, Lido is living his best life on Peder. His style has that enviable balance between full-on Millennial pop and R&B progressivism. The short compositions and ample vocal hooks lend it a commercial heartbeat, but this is tempered by the multitude of styles and moods. Piled high on the plate through a scene-shifting journey of vignettes and inter-song connections, Lido’s range of sounds is impressively expressed.

This album has a shifting focus, jumping from scene to scene as the minutes tick by. It’s low intensity beats for midnight car rides, it’s lazy lounge-wear personal days, it’s quiet after parties in Zone 1 tower blocks. Acoustic guitar picking and field recordings on Yellow Bike Intro and Pure Santiago sit alongside the weightier, electronica-soaked compositions such as Grouptext, BEST4U and Postclubridehomemusic. The songs drift in and out seamlessly, leaving no aftertaste for a truly cohesive experience.
One of Lido’s key strengths is his ability to write about his lifestyle without slipping into braggadocio. The overarching mood on Peder is gratitude – Lido gets to live as a 24/7 creative, and he appears to just be happy to be there. He writes about the women in his life with genuine tenderness – a bachelor with a conscience. However, he also tends to lack the emotional reach of his peers, and some of the songs you end up thinking “dude, just get over her!” There’s no looking to the future, no observation outside of the walls of his experience: He lives in the here and now.

There’s also no punchline or statement either, no overarching journey or theme to dwell on. Instead, he chooses to treat us to his wide selection of washed-out tunes, with a range of musicality and intelligent songwriting which makes the experience enjoyably brevis. With the ideas presented on Peder, Lido shows his potential, and with it a glimpse into what may be a very rosy future for him.