35 of my clothing items are from hm right now, and im clutching a venti salted caramel mocha, gazing into the unresponsive cover of haruki murakamis 1q84. this was my preparation for my oneman listening session of yung leans new album unknown memory, which promised a refinement and expansion of the sluggishly bouncing world of leans previous work. the covers aesthetic properties convey a warmness, as if the smokefilled atmosphere of leans is decidedly fresh off the lips of whoever blew it. and the title? surprisingly prescient The album is bookended with instrumentals, and the first is the most telling. the synths that have come to characterize the swedes beats now possess a subtle, but tellingly obvious amount of trap infusion to them. though the album comes soon after he played his first show in the united states, one can clearly tell that he and his team looked towards the metamorphosing tastes of his american fanbase to craft beats that say yeezus as much as von. lyrically, the autotuneaddled vocals of much of the album speaks to a desire to create an image, not an album only. he titles a song leanworld, and the swampy vortex of unknown memory sucks us into such a world, with no desire to ever escape Policy recommendations much like drake eschewing club paradise and dreams money can buy for placements on take care, yung leans careerdefining song kyoto is absent from the album. kyoto is a song that, like club paradise, wouldnt feel out of place no matter the aging of it. instead, unknown memory works almost as a continuation of that which kyoto started, but sadly falters to ever reach its peak Overall rating 8.510
kyoto, album, lean, unknown, yung