“All You Need Is Lust” - Elise Trouw
Photo Credit: Elise Trouw
Elise Trouw has never exactly played by the rules — but with “All You Need Is Lust,” she’s not just breaking them, she’s gleefully setting them on fire. The multi-instrumentalist, producer, and visual artist has built a career out of effortless musical precision — looping drums, bass, piano, and vocals into pop-jazz symphonies that made her a viral sensation. But this time? She’s traded virtuosity for vulnerability, precision for provocation. And the result is her most compelling work yet.
The song kicks off The Diary of Elon Lust, a satirical concept album told through the perspective of her invented alter ego — Elon Lust, a fictional twenty-something man made up of “things men have said” to her, to her friends, and to women everywhere. Think of it as a gender-swapped fever dream of ego and insecurity.
“All You Need Is Lust” twists the Beatles’ utopian anthem into a cynical, seductive mantra. Over a slick, hypnotic groove, Elise layers velvety harmonies and warped synth bass, creating something that feels like Prince meets Nine Inch Nails in a hall of mirrors. It’s equal parts satire and self-exorcism — a track that makes you want to dance and cringe at the same time. The production is tight and cinematic, pulsing with that familiar Trouw rhythmic intelligence, but with a new edge: darker, cheekier, and infinitely more dangerous.
The accompanying video takes things even further into the absurd. Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, it’s a surreal, hyper-saturated dream populated by cherry-headed dancers, giant breast costumes, and dreamlike tableaux that feel like Eyes Wide Shut reimagined by a feminist art collective. Directed by Elise herself, it’s designed to provoke — playful yet unnerving, sensual yet distinctly not sexual. “We wanted it to feel strange and unsettling,” she explains. Mission accomplished.
What’s most striking, though, isn’t just the boldness — it’s the honesty. For years, Elise was celebrated as a musical prodigy: the girl who could play everything, look flawless doing it, and stay endlessly “likable.” Now, she’s confronting the invisible pressure of that image head-on. “I started writing these songs as a joke,” she says, “but over time I realized – they weren’t completely jokes.” Elon Lust becomes both a caricature and a mirror — a grotesque embodiment of how women are perceived, and how they sometimes have to perform to be taken seriously.
Thematically, it’s her most daring pivot yet — a razor-sharp critique wrapped in funk grooves and irony. Yet musically, it still feels quintessentially Trouw: inventive, rhythmically alive, and sonically pristine. This isn’t a rejection of her past work; it’s an expansion, a pulling-back of the curtain.
If “All You Need Is Lust” is any indication, The Diary of Elon Lust will be the project where Elise Trouw stops being everyone’s prodigy and becomes fully her own artist — fearless, self-aware, and unafraid to be a little bit weird. It’s pop for people who love discomfort; satire you can groove to; art that winks while it stings.
“All You Need Is Lust” is available now on all major streaming platforms
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