Icona Pop are entering a new era, and it feels a little more personal than the duo’s usual dancefloor chaos. Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo have released their new album Ritual via Ultra Records/Iconic Sound Recordings, alongside the album’s deeply personal focus track, “Hurt.” The duo has also shared an official visualizer for the song, co-directed by Icona Pop and Nicole Walker.

Watch “Hurt”

“Hurt” is about heartbreak, but it isn’t really a revenge song. Instead, Icona Pop focuses on that uncomfortable stage of moving on when you’re still hurting but finally starting to accept that a relationship is over. There’s sadness throughout the track, but also a sense of relief: the realization that you can miss what you had while still knowing you’re going to be okay. The new album finds Icona Pop looking at friendship, motherhood, heartbreak, anxiety, reinvention and growing into different versions of themselves. Caroline and Aino became mothers within days of each other, moved back to Sweden after years in Los Angeles and went through major personal changes while creating the record.

“We were absolutely crying in the studio,” she says, describing the song as being about letting go and saying goodbye. The track looks back at a relationship with sadness, but also with enough distance to recognize that the memories were still beautiful. “Hurt” might be the clearest example of that balance and joins previously released Ritual tracks including “Yellow Top,” “Ritual” featuring Daya, “Dance To This” and “Butterfly Feelings.” Together, the songs introduce an album that feels less interested in simply recreating the Icona Pop of the past and more focused on figuring out who they are now.

And that’s ultimately what Ritual is about.

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna