''Club Romantech (consisting Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo)'' is the third studio album by Swedish

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

duo

Icona Pop Icona Pop ( ) are a Swedish synth-pop duo that formed in 2009, with electro house and indie pop music influences. Its two members, Aino Jawo (born 7 July 1986) and Caroline Hjelt (born 8 November 1987), grew up in Stockholm and created what the ...

. It was released on 1 September 2023 through Swedish independent record label

TEN Music Group TEN Music Group is a Swedish independent record label headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The label was founded by Ola Håkansson in 2003. History The company was founded by Swedish singer, composer and producer, Ola Håkansson in 2003, in St ...

and

Ultra Ultra may refer to: Science and technology * Ultra (cryptography), the codename for cryptographic intelligence obtained from signal traffic in World War II * Adobe Ultra, a vector-keying application * Sun Ultra series, a brand of computer work ...

. The album marks the duo's first studio release in ten years.

Background

Work on the album started in 2020, when the duo was forced to sell their

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

home and had to relocate back to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

to quarantine. They eventually found themselves in the "quietest period" they had ever experienced in their career. However, they still wanted to create music that was "more up-tempo". Hjelt stated that the writing process had no rules. The intention was to share their vision with the fans, "inviting them" into their world. Jawo added that the duo loves to put their problems concerning "heartbreaks and sadness" in danceable "uplifting" songs. On 23 June 2023, the duo announced the album through their social media and shared the album cover. The announcement also saw the release of the single "Where Do We Go from Here", one of the first songs written for the album in fall 2020. The album will include a set of singles released since 2020: " Feels in My Body", "Spa", "Off of My Mind", "You're Free", "I Want You", "Faster" and "Shit We Do for Love". On 1 December 2023, the deluxe version of the album was released.

Critical reception

''Club Romantech'' received a score of 76 out of 100 on review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

based on four critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception.

Track listing

Notes * signifies a co-producer * signifies a vocal producer

Personnel

Icona Pop * Caroline Hjelt – vocals (tracks 1–10, 12–15) * Aino Jawo – vocals (1–10, 12–15) Additional musicians * Lise Reppe – background vocals (5, 6) * Philip Strand – background vocals (7) * Yaroslav Polikarpov – vocals (11) * Audrey Wheeler – background vocals (13) * Cindy Mizelle – background vocals (13) * Keith Fluitt – background vocals (13) *

Ultra Naté Ultra Naté (born March 20, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, DJ, and promoter who has achieved success on the pop charts with songs such as "Free (Ultra Naté song), Free", "If You Could Read My Mind" (as part of Stars o ...

– vocals (13) * Sophie Hawley-Weld – vocals (15) * Tucker Halpern – vocals (15) Technical * Cass Irvine – mastering (1–10, 12, 13) * Samuel Wills – mastering, mixing (11) * Aria Mastering – mastering (13) *

Colin Leonard Colin Leonard is an American mastering engineer. In 2024, he won a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album (Victoria Monét) and in 2025 for Album of the Year (Beyoncé), as well as receiving 14 nominations. He has also received 13 Latin Grammy ...

– mastering (14) * Kevin Grainger – mastering (15) * Mark Ralph – mixing (1) * Miles Walker – mixing (3–10, 12–15) * Jacob Werner – mixing (11),

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

(1, 3, 6, 9, 13), vocal engineering (8) * Philip Strand – engineering (4, 5), vocal engineering (7) * Yaro – engineering (5, 6, 10, 12) * Davie Darlington – engineering (13) * Ultra Naté – engineering (13) * Ryan Summer – vocal engineering (7) * Ryan Jumper – engineering assistance (15)

References

{{Icona Pop 2023 albums Icona Pop albums TEN Music Group albums Disco albums by Swedish artists Albums impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic