Icona Pop Turn Heartbreak Into Release On Heartfelt Album ‘Ritual’

Icona Pop have always understood that the dancefloor can hold more than one feeling at once. On Ritual, Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo lean all the way into that truth. The duo turns heartbreak, motherhood, anxiety, healing, and friendship into ten tracks built to move through the pain instead of around it.

The album feels intimate without losing its color. “Yellow Top,” “Dance To This,” “Butterfly Feelings,” and the Daya-assisted title track all carry the duo’s familiar pop rush and remind us why we fell in love with the girls so many years ago. Ritual is less about escape and more about finding enough space to breathe again.

“Hurt” cuts deepest. It begins in a fragile place, with lonely keys and a broken vocal loop, then slowly swells into something heavier and more cathartic. There is no revenge in it. Just the brutal realization that something beautiful can end and still matter. By the time the bass arrives, the sadness has not disappeared, but neither have you.

That balance defines the record. Icona Pop sound older, clearer, and more comfortable letting contradiction live inside the music. You can grieve and dance. You can miss someone and still move forward. You can carry the memory without letting it carry you.

Ritual is out now, and Icona Pop will take it on the road this fall with dates across the U.S. and Scandinavia.

ICONA POP: RITUAL TOUR 2026 – Tickets
9/25 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
10/2 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
10/23 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Pustervik
10/24 – Lund, Sweden – Mejeriet
10/30 – Oslo, Norway – Vulkan Arena
11/6 – Norrköping, Sweden – Arbis Bar & Salong
11/7 – Stockholm, Sweden – Berns
11/13 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Pumpehuset
11/20 – Las Vegas, NV – TBA
11/21 – Los Angeles, CA – Moroccan Lounge