The young Swedish artist brought his album Starz to us on May 15th. I would like to point out that although he does not have many followers in our country, he is an interesting artist.
We witnessed this artist, who is considered one of the pioneers of the cloud-rap style, improve himself and produce different works in each album, and it was a really nice feeling. Let's see if we will experience this feeling in this album too. However, if you are going to listen to his music for the first time, I advise you not to approach it with prejudice. Because if you listen to it for the first time, there is a high probability that you will not like it and will not give it a chance, but if you are patient and continue listening, I think you will like his music. Since I am a close follower of his, I will review his 4th studio album, Starz, in this article. Lets start!
Cloud-rap: Cloud rap, as the name suggests, is a rap subgenre that has a strange but peaceful atmosphere, as if you are flying in the skies, but is not rich in lyrical content.
Yung Lean stated in an interview with Italian magazine The Kaleidoscope that he recorded part of the Starz album in Portugal and the other part in Sweden, and that Starz was his best album. I agree with him too. He has created a more mature and complete album compared to his other albums. We can see this album as concrete evidence that Lean is thinking more professionally as he gets older. I would also like to point out that he is only 24 years old. I have no doubt that he will do much better.
The album consists of 16 songs and includes a duet with Ariel Pink, one of the important names of hypnagogic pop. In fact, a duet with American rapper Playboi Carti was also expected, but unfortunately it did not happen due to the problems Carti had with his own company. As in the previous albums, the album was produced together by Lean's close friends Whitearmor and Yung Sherman.
Hypnagogic pop: Pop and psychedelic music that evokes cultural memory and nostalgia for popular entertainments of the past (especially the 1980s).
I would like to point out that the atmosphere of the album is more positive than his previous album, Stranger. We heard that he was happy and highly motivated in recent interviews. This situation is clearly reflected in this album. I was very pleased with this situation myself, I listened to the entire album with a smile on my face.
One of the interesting things about the album is definitely its production. This is exactly what puts Yung Lean in a different place in today's market. Dreamy beats, well-adjusted distortions, in short, the infrastructure of the songs was prepared with great devotion. I think you'll notice it when you listen. Lyrically, it is a bit better than their previous albums, but it is still an album that is mediocre and may even be bad for some listeners.
Dreamy beat: We can say that it is a type of beat that is frequently used in cloud-rap, takes you to other lands and pushes the limits of your imagination.
Distortion: Distortion is the process of changing or distorting the natural sound of a musical instrument.
The worst part of the album for me is the vocals. We would be deceiving ourselves if we said that he has a very beautiful voice. In some tracks, vocal and beat harmony was not fully achieved and autotune was not used successfully in some places. The song "Butterfly Paralyzed", which is the 10th track of the album, seemed very artificial to me due to the excessive use of autotune. Likewise, the next track, “Dogboy”, is another song that I did not like for the same reason. In the 15th track on the album, "Sunset Sunrise", I had difficulty understanding what he was saying because the vocals were not strong enough.
Autotune: It is an audio processor used to correct mistakes and errors in vocal and instrument performances for more flawless recordings..
I really liked the album overall. Except for the 3 songs I mentioned, I added all the songs to my playlist and I listen to them constantly. But if I were to choose my three favorite songs, they would be "Starz", "Yayo" and "Violence".
Finally, if I were to rate it out of 10, I would give it 7/10. He is very open to improvement, as I said, I have no doubt that he will do better. I think you should give this album a chance and listen to it. If you like it, I highly recommend you check out Lean's discography. New music means new worlds.
See you in my next article. Stay with the music!
