Since the late ’90s, Yukimi Nagano has served as the locus of Swedish electronica quartet Little Dragon. And now, she’s equally commanding on her debut solo album, For You, a portrait of the artist as a woman in her early-forties. The R&B-rooted record quietly astounds and blossoms with each listen. Like The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly, it’s an album that dives into the artist’s personal history as a means of connecting with listeners. “When you write from a place that feels deeply personal, it all becomes very human,” Yukimi says during the record’s spoken-word prologue. “And that’s why I’m calling this album ‘For You,’ because, even though it’s about me, it’s equally about you. And here we are, spinning on the planet together. All I really, really wish for is that we remember to be connected.”
Yukimi has always wanted to connect with audiences. “I always loved to put on a performance for my parents, and I think, really early on, I just started to remember the words to songs,” she says of her musical childhood in Gothenburg. “You’d have something playing on the radio or whatever, and then you’d just kind of learn the song and then, suddenly, you were putting on a show.” In high school, Yukimi met Erik Bodin, Fredrik Wallin, and Håkan Wirenstrand and, in 1996, formed what would eventually become Little Dragon. “We’d just meet in rehearsal rooms, play songs, and write. We didn’t really define ourselves as the band, and Håkan wasn’t really in the mix at that time. But there were a lot of different little clubs for newly started bands in Gothenburg, so there definitely was a scene.”
Much of what presumably distinguished Little Dragon in the European indie rock scene of the early ’00s was Yukimi’s voice. A fierce falsetto, her vocals could only have arrested listeners upon first hearing them and announced a major new talent. Both in Sweden and here in America, indie rock fans took notice of the band when, in 2007, Little Dragon released their self-titled debut album. The band’s electronica-rock hybrid was one factor, their webby guitars and shiny synths forming a sizzling stew. Yet it was Yukimi’s voice and the words she uttered that were perhaps most compelling to listeners. “Twice I turn my back on you / I fell flat on my face, but didn’t lose / Tell me, where would I go? / Tell me what led you on, I’d love to know,” Yukimi sings on Little Dragon’s opener “Twice,” revealing that she’s ready for anything.
On that record’s mid-album track “Constant Surprises,” the singer similarly takes no nonsense from a would-be lover when she sings, “We spoke, then suddenly I could read his mind / You think it’s mad but I don’t fool myself.” Yukimi’s candor here is part of her broader intuitive songwriting approach. “Usually there’s a piece of music, some chords, a beat, or something that I’m gravitating toward,” she says. “For me, melodies are very integral, and that’s where I always begin a song. Sometimes the words sort of just come along with the melody, because I’ll just start singing some words and then I end up keeping them.”
“I always loved to put on a performance for my parents... You’d have something playing on the radio, and then you’d just kind of learn the song and then, suddenly, you were putting on a show.”
Throughout her nearly 30-year career, the musician has been a fearless lyricist. Whether fronting Little Dragon or singing on the innumerable guest spots she’s been involved with, from Gorillaz to SBTRKT to Dave Sitek’s Maximum Balloon project, she’s stood out with her howling expression of the pains and joys of modern life. So when she sings, “Slugs of love in search of freedom / Life-tasting, these true believers” on the title track from Little Dragon’s most recent album, 2023’s Slugs of Love, her search for serenity feels authentic—it resonates.
Yukimi continues seeking peace on For You. Produced by Little Dragon’s Erik Bodin, the electronica-inflected solo record has some downcast effects but makes room for warmer, more searching beats. Alternately wistful and buoyant, the record retains its optimism and reaches the conclusion that life may not be so bad. Most of all, it’s full of the grit and grace that’s made Yukimi the pure artist that she is. “In my mind, for many years, I just sort of imagined myself forever being with the band,” she shares of the record’s origins. “But there was something in the air, I’d say. And I think we sort of got to a point, all of us in the band, where we kind of felt like, ‘Y’know, we’ve done this, we’ve compromised, we know we have some magic and something special together, but we’re all kind of ready to do our own thing.’”
“We sort of got to a point where we felt like, ‘Y’know, we know we have some magic and something special together, but we’re all kind of ready to do our own thing.’”
Rest assured, she makes no mention of Little Dragon disbanding. Rather, she just felt ready to unveil her own project. She estimates that she wrapped up work on the album at the end of 2023 and had a couple of songs that she “had in mind for something solo.” The result is a subtly cool record that’s a journey through romance, motherhood, and resilience. On the swoony second track, “Make Me Whole,” over silvery electronics, Yukimi sings, “These urges I can’t control / My emptiness to feed / I’m sold / I wanna have it,” her ache for love fully palpable. The next song “Break Me Down” sees Yukimi addressing a potential lover, saying, “Don’t put me in a box” and, over a steady slow-jam beat, declaring, “Nothing’s gonna shake / No one’s gonna break me / Nothing’s gonna take me now.” Bold and defiant, this is the Yukimi that we’ve come to know over the years, baring her soul with her signature scowl.
Later on For You she gets even more personal. The track, “Jaxon,” for instance, is named for her son, and when she coos, “You were born electric, boy / With a will of steel,” her adoration for the child shines through. Pure motherly love, the track is Yukimi’s version of Lauryn Hill’s “Zion,” which is named for Hill’s own son. An ode, a hope that her kid will have a good life with “an angel watching over” him, it’s a standout on For You.
Bringing the album full circle, Yukimi ends For You with a member of her elder generation. With shimmering effects and gospel-like piano notes, the record’s last song “Feels Good to Cry” features her father Yusuke Nagano musing on life’s ephemerality and transience. “But now I cry for anything,” her father says with a warm chuckle, and Yukimi joins him and the rest of us, letting it all be. As she said at the start, Yukimi made For You for you, whatever your ache, whatever your bliss. FL
