The Little Dragon frontwoman’s debut is soothing, sonically sage, and, above all, tender.

After nearly thirty years fronting Swedish electropop unit Little Dragon, vocalist Yukimi Nagano, who goes by her first name as a soloist, has released her solo debut, For You. 

Little Dragon formed in 1996 but released their self-titled debut in 2007. Down the pipe came critical acclaim, four more records (over sixteen years), and features with ODESZA, Gorillaz, Mac Miller, and De La Soul.

Yukimi’s debut maintains Little Dragon’s free-roaming, spacious sensibility but slows down and zooms in on both lyric and sound. In “Prelude For You,” Yukimi explicitly verbalizes the album’s mission statement: “When you write from a place that feels deeply personal, it all becomes very human. 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 a planet together. All I really really wish for is that we remember to be connected.”

Mission accomplished: the record sees Yukimi reflect on her most intimate bonds and fondest hopes for them. In “Jaxon” she speaks to her son of her love and hopes for him, in “Peace Reign” she repeats the necessity of belief for social change (“in my mind’s eye, a land where peace will reign, you have to believe it for it to come true”), and in Lianne La Havas’ verse on “Steam of Consciousness” La Havas sings of her yearning to change herself for the better: “maybe I’ll be kinder, maybe then I’ll know much more than this.”

And of course La Havas is here: this record is all earnest singer-songwriter warbling atop insistently relaxed instrumentation. It’s a cool, clean, industrial touch on the wistful contemporary soul championed by La Havas and Cleo Sol. It’s for getting lost in thought over a solo morning coffee or gazing out the window contemplating how far you’ve come and how far you’ve yet to go. It’s for those who shed a tear when Sol’s “Rose in the Dark” played over the Insecure finale. 

What distinguishes this album, besides the subtle but steady Nordic coolness, is Yukimi’s voice. It has a syrupy warmth and borderline nasal quality (does anyone remember Duffy?) that feels too distant from the deep, broad production on some tracks. Despite the masterful prog R&B production, it’s a relief to hear tracks built around acoustic guitar like “Elinam” and “Sad Make-Up,” solely because Yukimi’s sultry-sweet timbre seems to fit in theirs. The effect elsewhere is like hearing Yukimi’s voice through a screen door. Guest verses from La Havas and De La Soul’s Pas bring this effect into focus: they both sound clear as a bell and closer in the mix, refreshingly. 

At its worst, that juxtaposition and the central Millennial sincerity evoke Emily King. But the worst doesn’t last: thanks to sage yet playful production that foregrounds specific instruments in the mix — strings on “Elinam,” bass on “Peace Reign,” piano on “Winter Is Not Dead” — to consummate, clearly seasoned effect. Ditto for the production’s genre roaming, which favorably evokes Tyler the Creator or The Internet on “Break Me Down,” Lauryn Hill or Amy Winehouse on “Elinam,” and Khruangbin or Parcels on “Rules of School.” Even the polka-ish scratching on “Winter Is Not Dead” — which sounds like first learning a string instrument and yanking the bow back and forth for a start-stop-start-stop sound — hypnotizes.

Wherever it goes, “For You” stays calm. It never once gets messy, angry, or frustrated. It’s past that: it’s a sensitive record that sits in the watery moment after a tension has melted into the tender feeling that one is about to cry. And per its closer, “Feels Good to Cry,” it’s okay with that.