Stardust

Hailing from Sweden—and the crevices of the extremely online—the baby-faced Yung Lean is a modern type of OG. In the early 2010s, he used impressionistic songwriting and vibey, lo-fi instrumentals to pioneer the sound of cloud-rap, and *Stardust*—his first release since 2020\'s *Starz*—is a reminder of that legacy. With their ethereal instrumentals, slurred melodies, and vulnerable lyrics, tracks like \"All the Things\" and \"Waterfall\" scan as quintessential Lean, recalling the free-wheeling, emotional approach of the Sad Boys music collective he helped create in 2012. He’s still trying out new things, too: For “Summertime Blood,” he dives all the way into EDM for an epic Skrillex collab (one of two on the album). Meanwhile, on the FKA twigs-assisted \"Bliss,\" he blends his semi-free-associative bars and indifferent monotone with a fuzzy, New Wave-inflected guitar line to create an unpredictable post-punk anthem, showcasing the type of rewarding experimentation that first propelled him to fame.

The Swedish artist’s new mixtape is the next step in his shedding the mantle of wannabe rapper and fully embracing a more comfortable role as a pop experimentalist.