Yung Lean Reboots Robyn’s “Robotboy”
The Stockholm shapeshifter turns Robyn’s 2005 cult favourite into a melancholy lullaby for his former self.
by RANGE
- Published on
Yung Lean has always sounded a little like someone from the future trying to make sense of human emotions. So naturally, Robyn’s “Robotboy” fits him like a glove.
The Stockholm artist just dropped his own reimagining of Robyn’s beloved 2005 track, produced by longtime Robyn collaborator Klas Åhlund. The cover was born from a conversation between the two artists in their shared hometown, where Lean apparently confessed a deep connection to the song’s titular sad machine.
“I asked Jonatan (Yung Lean) if he wanted to record his version of ‘Robotboy’ because I just craved hearing his interpretation of this sad song,” Robyn says. “I think it was made for you J, the lyrics turn to gold in your version, like you are singing this lullaby to a previous version of yourself.”
Both artists grew up in Stockholm’s Södermalm neighbourhood before taking wildly different paths toward becoming two of Sweden’s most singular musical exports. Sorry Zara Larsson, we love you too! But Robyn showed the world how to turn heartbreak into euphoric pop catharsis while Lean helped drag rap into the strange, sad and terminally online future. On “Robotboy,” those worlds don’t feel so far apart.
Rather than treating the song like something that needs to be reinvented beyond recognition, Lean leans into its melancholy, allowing the emotional core of Robyn’s original to remain intact while making it unmistakably his own.
It also arrives during a big year for Robyn, whose new album, Sexistential, marks her long-awaited return. She brings The Sexistential Tour to North America this September, including its one Canadian stop at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Sept. 15.
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