Jonatan

Yung Lean’s Jonatan is the Swedish artist’s fifth studio album, released independently through his World Affairs label on May 2, 2025. Named for his birth name, Jonatan Leandoer Håstad, it is a self-portrait that gathers the many strands of his career—cloud rap, dream-pop, post-punk, art rock, and electronic pop—into a more personal, reflective whole. Across 13 tracks and just under 39 minutes, Lean moves beyond the detached, internet-born “sad boy” persona of his early work, using subdued melodies, hazy guitars, cavernous bass, and raw vocal performances to address identity, fame, loneliness, paranoia, and survival.

The album begins with “Jonatan Intro,” then moves through the restless “Might Not B,” the self-referential “Forever Yung,” and the slacker-rock-leaning “Horses.” Songs such as “Paranoid Paparazzi,” “Babyface Maniacs,” and “I’m Your Dirt, I’m Your Love” return to his signature surreal imagery, while “Changes” and “Terminator Symphony” feature production contributions from Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never). The closing sequence—“My Life,” “Swan Song,” “Terminator Symphony,” and “Lessons from Above”—is especially introspective, framing the record as both a look back at the previous decade and an attempt to find peace beyond it. Overall, Jonatan is an ambitious, genre-fluid album: at times messy and uneven, but deliberately vulnerable in the way it blends Yung Lean’s internet-rap origins with the more melodic, melancholic music he has pursued in recent years.