Sigrid, ‘How To Let Go.’

Norwegian singer-songwriter Sigrid has used her music as an outlet to deliver messages of self-empowerment and confidence since she released breakthrough single “Don’t Kill My Vibe” in 2017, when she was 20. The quiet verses and building choruses, with lyrics like, “You love to tear me down, you pick me apart/ Then build me up like I depend on you,” found her hitting on a style of songwriting that manages to be self-empowering and progressive while maintaining modern pop sounds.

That’s the case throughout most of her sophomore effort, How To Let Go as well. Coming three years after debut Sucker Punch, the 12-track collection is mostly about appreciating yourself and taking the daunting leaps life presents young adults.

“I spend half of my time trying to dance on a fine line between way too good and way too extreme,” she sings on “Risk of Getting Hurt,” before the beat picks up. She goes on to learn how speaking up feels better than leaving her thoughts unsaid.

The album features several songs that employ raw instrumental work, such as piano-led ballad “Last To Know,” where the artist, whose name is Sigrid Solbakk Raabe, admits to herself that listening to her lover string her along is no longer worth it. Then there’s songs using only an acoustic guitar, helping emphasize her vocal work. “Grow,” the penultimate track, serves as a moment for her to look back on a previous relationship and see when it’s time to separate and let herself change. This might be the album’s best moment.

How To Let Go is supported by lead single “Mirror,” where a pulsating beat helps Sigrid conclude she does, indeed, like the person who’s staring back at her in the mirror. She wrote most of the album with Sylvester Sivertsen (Sly) the Danish producer and songwriter behind Dua Lipa’s “We’re Good” or fellow Scandi-pop artist MØ’s “Live to Survive.” His work creates a beat that moves confidently and is elevated with strings, “a-ha’s,” and light clapping with each ensuing chorus.

The confident pop beats are further established on opening track “It Gets Dark,” where Sigrid finds herself moving further and further away from home, discovering the expanse of the universe and seeing the stars. “Burning Bridges” follows with an energetic, pulsating beat that helps her realize how she tore herself apart trying to hold relationships together. “You gotta let it go/ Sometimes you just can’t fix it,” she concludes during the fist-pumping chorus.

The album’s single collaboration is with British rock group Bring Me the Horizon on “Bad Life.” The lyrics recount “that feeling in our chests” that forces us to fake smiles and hide internal wreckage causing our depression and anxieties. It’s another piano-led single, but unfortunately, as it builds with drums and Oliver Sykes’ featured vocals, the song starts to feel like a by-the-numbers feel-good anthem. At this stage of the album, it would be better to hear Sigrid wallow in depressive bouts instead of trying to offer somewhat-generic advice on how to overcome self-doubt and love yourself.

It’s the album’s only real pitfall.

There’s a fine line to tread between a conceptual album revolving around a singular relationship of a depressive state, but this feels a bit like Sigrid found a songwriting formula that works and is socially relevant. The lyrics and stories don’t always seem as deeply personal or pulled from the depths of her emotions as they could. By the time you’ve listened to all 12 songs, you might feel like you just listened to a playlist thematically based on Alessia Cara’s “Scars To Your Beautiful” or Colbie Caillat’s “Try.” It’s not bad, per se, but it doesn’t give in to the dark sides of personal turmoil and self-doubt as much as it could. Here’s hoping that Sigrid’s LP3 begins to chart new territories.

Follow Domenic Strazzabosco at Twitter.com/domenicstrazz and Instagram.com/domenicstrazz.