Music Review: Yung Lean- Starz

I have to start this review with a little bit of a disclaimer. I haven’t really heard much of Yung Lean until this album, I knew that he was a cloud rapper who made a big name for himself for his sadboy/emo rap movement that he was on. I couldn’t help but take a listen to this album however after seeing a lot of praise it was getting from fans and even from people that weren’t fans of him before. So I figured that I might as well jump into this running and see what I would get out of it, and what I ended up getting was a bag of diamonds and used charcoal.

Let me explain, this album starts off with three of the best songs I’ve heard this year. “My Agenda” is probably one of the best produced songs of the year so far hands down. The booming and abrasive bass that goes throughout the whole song is extremely intense as Yung Lean delivers these vocals that are gentle yet dark that fit extremely well with what is going on behind him. All of this ends up coming to what sounds like a noise piece that sounds fantastic going along with the bass rhythm that has been pounding us since the beginning of the song. This two minute song really is truly one of the best experiences I’ve had this year listening to music. Then we have “Yayo” which has more of a silky and delicate production pallet. While the drum beat in this song is pretty catchy, Leans vocals are nice and fit well with the beat, delicate but prettier than the album’s opener. Then we have “Boylife In The EU” which is a fantastic song. Very soft opening to this song with a beautiful ambiance provided by the wonderful production of whitearmor. The chorus of this song is very nice as the gritty synth work comes in providing a darker undertone to the song. Leans delivery on this song is great as well as he once again just seems to know exactly where to fit his voice.

However, the extremely strong start that this album gives us, is what ends up hurting the record. That’s because the next 13 or so songs on this record do not even come close in quality to the three mentioned above. I can’t help but feel that Yung Lean started to lose his spunk while making this record because his lyrics and his vocals start to take a nosedive right after the first three songs here. Plus I can’t help but think that Lean just simply didn’t enough energy to songs such as “Violence” which makes you want more from him because he just sounds too quiet with the booming beat and slightly aggressive undertones the production is giving us. There are times on here though where it just didn’t seem like Lean was trying all that hard. Especially with the song “Acid at 7/11” which has no interesting qualities to it at all. The lyrics are beyond weak, repetitive, forgettable, and it doesn’t help that Lean is giving one of his worst vocal deliveries on the entire album. I find the auto-tuned voice on “Butterfly Paralyzed” to be rather annoying which unfortunately ruins the entire song for me, as it sounds like it was having a hard time trying to find a pitch to put his voice into.

I won’t lie I have a bit of a gripe with the song “Outta My Head” where it seems like he’s giving off a controlling boyfriend vibe which I find to kind of be a little bit awkward sounding with the sad production going on in the background. Maybe I looked too far into it, but it just really seemed odd to me.

We do have other songs on here I feel I should shout out at the very least. The title track “Starz” is pretty nice. The production is very grand sounding, Leanz vocals take a step back in the right direction with this song as well and Ariel Pinks vocals and whitearmors production really do match up well in the second half of the song. “Pikachu” may not be a strong song lyrically but the great production and beat on it makes up for this. I would also have to say the same for the song “Sunset Sunrise” as the production once again takes center stage on this song instead of Yung Lean.

Really though besides these songs it is filled with a lot of okay moments and not much else. There is no question though that what saves this album from being mostly filler and lifeless is the production. The production on almost every song is phenomenal, and for that alone it makes it worth listening to the so-so songs because whitearmor’s work sounds so grand and interesting and at times, so beautiful. He really was the saving grace to this album, no question about it.

Overall, I’ll give it to Yung Lean he does have a voice and a style you don’t see too often in the rap scene right now. However, I feel he needs to continue stepping up his game lyrically and vocally if he was to impress me more often. His beat choices though are very strong and with people like whitearmor making these amazing tracks for him to sing and rap over, he honestly could make one hell of a record in the future.

6/10