MUMBAI : Global chart-topping duo Icona Pop return with their highly anticipated sophomore album, CLUB ROMANTECH, out now via Ultra Records / Iconic Sound Recordings / TEN Music Group, and led by the infectiously quirky dance banger, ‘Stick Your Tongue Out.’ Jam-packed with 15-stellar in your face dance anthems, CLUB ROMANTECH offers fans the quintessential end-of-summer party album. To celebrate the album’s release, Icona Pop DJ-ed at New York City’s hottest nightclub, The Stranger.

Listen to ‘CLUB ROMANTECH’ HERE.

Speaking about the focus track, Icona Pop reveal, “‘Stick Your Tongue Out’ came together one late night in LA with our friend and producer Timfromthehouse (Tove Lo). He played us an idea he had worked on with our friend Aluna that we loved, so we spent that whole night developing the idea and then brought it back to our studio in Stockholm to finish it with our producer Yaro (Swedish House Mafia). We chose this as our focus track because this song represents everything that our album, CLUB ROMANTECH, is: club, tech, house, sex, pop, hooks, vulnerability, fun. And it will now forever be a part of our DJ sets.”

In addition to new music, Icona Pop have announced their upcoming Fall North American tour. The duo is confirmed to play the Atlanta Pride Festival on October 14, followed by shows in Charleston, Charlotte, Richmond, Houston, Montreal, Dallas and New York City, with additional dates to be announced in the coming months. Tickets go on-sale, Friday September 8 via www.iconapop.com

Rewriting the rules, relying on instinct, and embracing freedom, Icona Pop inhabit a world of their own design, creating an unmistakably unique fusion of pop and dance that pulses with infectious energy and undeniable spirit. The multiplatinum Swedish duo—Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo—have taken each step of this journey together, vaulting from after-hours underground DJ sets to the top of the charts, sold out festivals, and beyond. They bring this vision to life like never before on their second full-length album, CLUB ROMANTECH.

Marking a thrilling new chapter in a career filled with era-defining highlights, CLUB ROMANTECH is a masterclass in bold dance pop and infectious crossover club tracks. The duo further cements their place in the Swedish pop canon with the kind of classy tears-in-the-club euphoria the country has become so synonymous with, not to mention plenty of deliciously razor sharp Icona Pop sass and a supporting cast of dance royalty collaborators including Ultra Naté, Galantis, Joel Corry and Sofi Tukker.

CLUB ROMANTECH began life as the world slipped into lockdown at the onset of the Global Pandemic when Icona Pop made the tough decision to sell their Los Angeles home and return to Stockholm to quarantine. With plans derailed and a new sense of focus, these longtime friends found themselves back “in the studio where it all started.” Channeling the nostalgic setting into forging new ideas, the pair set about re-engaging with their electronic and alternative roots from an evolved perspective as proven performers and accomplished songwriters, ‘getting back to what we love’ in more ways than one.

A 15-track tour-de-force, CLUB ROMANTECH balances delicious bittersweetness with infectious peak-time dance energy. From the immaculate dance-melancholia of ‘Stockholm At Night’, whose glitchy groove underlines a captivating call-and-response with a cinematic refrain, “Makes me wonder what you’re doing tonight”. To the sultry, yearning electro pop of ‘Need You’, where Icona Pop’s smoldering vox echo shades of a latter day Banks, or the full-pelt club hedonism of ‘Faster’, the duo give us range and depth in spades.

Taking us to all corners of the club universe, the summery piano house of ‘Loving You Ain’t Easy’, evokes the stylish club sensibilities of Jayda G or Peggy Gou, while the chantably anthemic ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ delivers rave synths and signature high energy Icona Pop bravado with a touch of reflectiveness, echoing the pivotal circumstances of the album’s creation.

On the eve of their album release, Icona Pop performed some tracks off the album, as part of for Amazon Music’s City Sessions, a global livestream performance + Q&A series filmed at stunning indoor and outdoor locations in Brooklyn and LA. Each session involves a Q&A with the artist followed by a live performance, with select tracks from the performance to be released exclusively on Amazon Music at a later date.

Icona Pop originally heralded this new chapter with a series of powerhouse collaborations, including ‘SPA’ with Sofi Tukker (WATCH), ‘Off My Mind’ with VIZE (LISTEN) and ‘You’re Free’ with Ultra Naté (LISTEN), all of which appear on CLUB ROMANTECH. Bringing us into 2023, Icona Pop continued to pave a path for the album with the first official single ‘I Want You’ with Galantis (LISTEN), followed by fan-favorite tracks ‘Faster’ (LISTEN), ‘Shit We Do For Love’ (with Yaeger) (LISTEN) and ‘Desire’ a collaboration with multi BRIT-nominated DJ/producer Joel Corry and breakout UK house & UKG producer outfit Rain Radio (LISTEN), bringing the listener on a journey that twists and turns down a rabbit hole of overpowering attraction fueled by thumping bass, nocturnal electronic accents, and another hypnotic hook.

More recently, Icona Pop released ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ (LISTEN), which appeared on Pitchfork’s Weekly Playlist with Rolling Stone lauding it as “a catchy dose of Europop as the pair sing in unison over dizzying beats,” and V Magazine praising it as “equal parts eclectic and pop perfection,” with Billboard hailing it “a simmering club track that refuses to relent for even a second,” leading NYLON to proclaim, “Icona Pop’s dance anthems are next to none when it comes to having fun at the club."
Then there was ‘Fall In Love,’ which arrived earlier this summer alongside an official music video directed by Kassandra Powell (WATCH), as well as a live performance at The Streamy Awards 2023.

Reflecting back on the making of CLUB ROMANTECH, Aino and Caroline reminisce, “Life is such a crazy roller coaster! Who would have thought that it would take us 10 years to release our 2nd album? Not us, that’s for sure! But here we are, and we couldn't be more happy with this album and where, and who we are as a band today. Come and see us on tour and experience the real-life ‘CLUB ROMANTECH!’”

Icona Pop’s second studio album, ‘CLUB ROMANTECH,’ is out everywhere now.
Download Press Photo here / Credit: Lily Lytton

LISTEN
CLUB ROMANTECH
Tracklist:
Fall In Love
Desire
Shit We Do For Love (with Yaeger)
Stick Your Tongue Out
Make Your Mind Up Babe
Stockholm At Night
Where Do We Go From Here?
I Want You (with Galantis)
Loving You Ain’t Easy
Need You
Off Of My Mind (with VIZE)
Faster
You’re Free (with Ultra Naté)
Feels In My Body
Spa (with SOFI TUKKER)

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
10/14 - Atlanta Pride - Atlanta, GA^
10/20 - Trio Charleston - Charleston, SC
10/21 - Trio Charlotte - Charlotte, NC
10/27 - Ember Music Hall - Richmond, VA
11/17 - Rise Rooftop - Houston, TX
11/18 - New City Gas - Montreal QC
11/22 - Stereo Live - Dallas, TX
12/02 - LAVO - New York, NY
Festival Performance