Jonatan, the new album from Swedish hip-hop innovator Yung Lean, is dominated by heartbreak and loneliness.
Lean has said the creation process for the record was his longest, with Jonatan taking about three years to complete.
It marks the end of a transitional period in his career, as Lean has officially moved away from the generic cloud rap that started his career back in 2013. Since Lean is maturing, so is his sound, with lots of raw instrumentation rather than premade computerized stems and loops.
Undoubtedly the magnum opus of Jonatan is the track “Paranoid Paparazzi,” which is essentially the center of the album thematically and also the overall best song on the album. Through the instrumentation and layered vocals, Lean shows off legitimate growth in singing abilities.
The track “My Life” is another high point of Jonatan, as it is a ballad about Lean’s love life and features some impressive vocals – especially coming from Lean, who has always been said to be rather tone deaf when it comes to actual singing.
