Yung Lean - Stranger

The Guardian 80

(Year0001)

The 21-year-old Swedish innovator is back with an album of hypnotic soundscapes that thankfully feels more comfortable in itself than 2016’s ropy Warlord. Indeed, in the year that saw the emo cloud rap of Lil Uzi Vert’s XO Tour Llif3 become song of the summer, Yung Lean’s sadboy aesthetic feels more fitting than ever. Channelling his uniquely hazy take on melodic southern hip-hop, Lean’s lyrics pour forth Bart Simpson-bravado (on Skimask) as much as harrowing insights into the paranoia that engulfs his mental health and romantic life (Red Bottom Sky). Stranger is especially striking for its beautiful production, drifting with dark synth glossiness that can feel a little meandering and aimless but just about avoids self-indulgence.

The Guardian 60

Is the deeply strange Swedish rapper a parody or a homage? Either way, his third album is full of addictive tunes

Few artists seem as likely to reduce unsuspecting listeners to a profound state of WTF? as Jonatan Leandoer Håstad, better known as Yung Lean. A baby-faced 21-year-old rapper from Stockholm, who rose to prominence aged 16 thanks to a viral YouTube video, his lyrical shtick, delivered in a voice that veers between Nordic and faux-American, is based on a combination of drizzly Drake-ish solipsism (the crew he heads is known as the Sad Boys) and mumbly depictions of a lifestyle based around an arsenal of drugs including weed, cocaine, ecstasy, Percocet and the cough syrup-laced drink from which he takes his name.

Related: Yung Lean review – Sad Boys say it with a fistful of flowers