Yung Lean Merges His Past Lives Into One on Jonatan
The Swedish rapper has spent time honing two separate personas—Yung Lean and jonatan leandoer96—but his fifth studio album under the former bridges any gaps that were left in between.

It’s hard to believe that Yung Lean is only 28. It’s even harder to grasp that it’s been over a decade since he recalibrated the hip-hop universe with his effervescent first single, “Ginseng Strip 2002.” The early cloud-rap anthem has stood the test of time, reaching mega-virality on TikTok mid-pandemic. But, as a new generation began engaging with his past, the Swedish-born Jonatan Leandoer evolved into the present. These days, Lean splits his art between two primary projects: Yung Lean and jonatan leandoer96. The difference in sound of these contrasting personas is usually easy to detect.
His recent releases under the former are bolstering and feverish in perspective, while the four projects under the latter are stripped back and delicate in structure, with Lean taking a more contemplative, almost poetic, R&B-minded approach. There are points in his discography where the attributes of jonatan trickle into the image of Yung Lean, the most familiar example being “Agony,” a heart-tearing, off-kilter lullaby inspired by his stay in a psychiatric unit. But on Jonatan, Yung Lean’s fifth and most recent studio album, the rapper fully collides these separate sonic worlds, meshing them into a lasting, material universe. That impressive feat is what makes up the album’s identity: an all-encompassing portrait of the young man and his many overlapping, tenured lives, without dilution or compromise.
Jonatan has a swirling complexion of genres, from eccentric ’80s pop to stadium-sized, 2010s grunge and even orchestral religious hymns, processed through a dreamy malaise of lo-fi caliber. At times, it sounds like a transistor radio dispatch, with Lean riffing off interpolations of ABBA and Bill Withers amid layered harmonies and thoughts of escape. Third track “Forever Yung” is driven by a bouncy, clapping melody, featuring Lean’s echoey mumble sliding up and down as he considers breaking out from “the spiral.” “I love the glory and the pain,” he admits, wrestling with what feels like a career-wide M.O. regarding fame. Here, he opts for singing as opposed to his usual buoyant rap flow, but he still maintains steady control. “Paranoid Paparazzi,” by contrast, has a dark, spoken word energy, with Lean murmuring over drearily indie instrumentals that sound much like a Dean Blunt feature.
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