On September 26th, 2025, Zara Larrson’s highly anticipated fifth studio album titled Midnight Sun was released. Now it has brought her many new followers, listeners, and trends in the time after its release.
Larrson has been making music since 2014 and had a few high-charting songs before her breakout this year. Before Midnight Sun was released, two songs from her album So Good became popular and were used all over social media and radio channels. These two songs were “Lush Life” and “Symphony,” which both now have accompanying memes, dances, and trends all over social media. At her shows, Larrson now even brings someone up on stage with her during “Lush Life” as fans have become committed to learning the dance.
After her comeback into the pop culture limelight was the perfect time for her to release an album, which is exactly what she did. Midnight Sun has been received positively by the general public. Many major music reviewers, such as Rolling Stone and Euphoria, gave it very high regard. As for my thoughts, I love it and thought it brought a very upbeat and positive light into a dark time in many people’s lives. It helps people escape from real life while still covering important personal issues.
This album included ten songs with an album length of 31 minutes, meaning all of the songs are very punchy, short songs that hit hard with every beat. The songs in order are “Midnight Sun”, “Blue Moon”, “Pretty Ugly”, “Girl’s Girl”, “Crush”, “Eurosummer”, “Hot & Sexy”, “The Ambition”, “Saturn’s Return”, and “Puss Puss”. The songs cover many topics, from love, wanting, working towards your goals, regret, and more. My favorite songs from the album are “Pretty Ugly”, “Midnight Sun”, and “Puss Puss”.
“Pretty Ugly” starts with an almost cheer-style callout, which is what immediately brought me in. Then a hard-hitting beat comes in behind it, amping up the song even more. The main thing that kept me listening to this song was its catchy lyrics, which were paired consistently with a heavy beat behind them. Multiple times, the song comes back to the line “Have you ever seen a pretty girl get ugly like this?” She is saying that as women, we are usually not given the space to speak our feelings and say exactly what we want. Women are often viewed in music and other media as people who should just “to sit there and look pretty,” as Larrson says. Throughout her whole album, one of the major themes is the empowerment of women, which is part of what drew me to this song. She sings about letting go and being able to experience life how you want, not how someone told you you should. I think that is the dream for most people, and Larrson is bringing that to light. The song, with its powerful meaning and hard-hitting production, is why it is one of my favorites and one I recommend to everyone.
One of my other favorite songs is the title track, “Midnight Sun.” It is an engaging start to the album that is so catchy you will catch yourself singing it all the time, as I have. The song starts out with almost video game-like sounds, with more heavy-hitting production coming in with her vocals. This song, like many of them, now has its own dance on Instagram and TikTok, causing her and the album’s popularity to skyrocket even more. Larrson is from Sweden, which is where the name Midnight Sun comes from. There is a time in the year when Sweden does have the Sun out at midnight, and Larrson is celebrating this and the feelings that come with it. These are things like joy, love, freedom, and my favorite line is one saying “Connected, I’m so in touch with it all.” She is talking about the connection that she has to where she lives and how free it is. This song overall brings a very positive light held up by a punchy production.
Lastly, I love all of the tracks, but the ending one titled “Puss Puss” is one of my favorites. The song is very meaningful to her life, with Larrson singing about talking to her partner on the phone. She talks about just wanting to stay on with them because of how happy it makes her. It lets us see a more personal side of her, and for those who are also in a relationship, to connect with her. The song includes multiple personal voice memos that show the level of connection and how she feels. The song feels like a tribute to love, which I believe is such an important way to end the album. With everything going on in the world, it is important to remind people that love is needed and can solve the issues we have. Puss Puss in Swedish means kiss kiss, which is a common thing to end a message or call with entertwining her culture into her music. She shows this in the starting line and one of my favorites, “I say ‘Puss Puss,’ but I don’t wanna hang up—Don’t want you to leave (don’t leave me).” It shows that human interest someone has with the important people in their life, you don’t want your time together to end. The light production on the song makes you focus on the lyrics and lets the listener really sink into the song.
Overall, Midnight Sun by Zara Larrson has been a recently influential album for me and many other fans. It has brought a positive light into many people’s lives, along with talking about important issues that need to be addressed. I loved it, and I am sure others will too because it is an album for everyone and makes you want to dance and be with the people you love. This was my first time listening to a full project from Zara Larrson, and it did not disappoint and definitely did rise of the occasion.
