Yung Lean has yet to falter on his releases from his new record Stranger, which drops on 10 November. And now his streak continues with the newest track “Skimask.” It’s as fun as the Swedish rapper gets, with a glitchy beat, trap drums, and sweet lyrics (“Skimask shawty, yes I see you in my dreams”) which will you’ll almost certainly be seeing as captions on the corner of Instagram populated by Vans Old Skools, stick and poke tattoos and MDMA, for better or worse.
What’s especially accomplished about the track, however, is that despite its low-key but certainly party-ready exterior, it retains the signature malaise that seems to loom over all of Lean’s recent output. The last release from Stranger, “Hunting My Own Skin,” did this too, though slightly more explicitly, as a bouncy instrumental accompanied introspective lyrics. It’s an extra dimension of weariness that he shares with artists like Future – sometimes it’s present in his delivery, or in the slightly muted feel of his beats – that immediately brings more emotional weight to everything he does. I’m a sucker for a sad boy, and “Skimask” is another example of why that is. Hear it above.
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