We get it—there is simply too much. So, as in years past, we are giving our editors a last-minute opportunity to plug the books, movies, albums, shows, skits, or any piece of cultural ephemera that didn’t quite get the attention or acclaim it deserved. To entertain your holiday guests, we present all the things you really should know about—as well as more of our year-in-review coverage—here.
The crooner displaced the commedia dell’arte Pierrot on my list of (sad) male archetypes this year. This is thanks largely to two (unrelated) Swedish albums: Sugar World by Jonatan Leandoer96 (better known as Yung Lean), produced by Frederik Valentin; and Power Ballads by Carl HS aka Carl Hjelm Sandqvist and produced by Hannes Ferm.
Both Sugar World and Power Ballads showed a sheer vocal power in which the unpolished vulnerabilities of the voice came to the fore. This rawness of Leaondor and Sandqvist’s sound feels connected to revelation or even confession. Leandoer does this with humor. Leaning into the guise of the wedding singer, he wears an ivory suit with his name embroidered on the back, a Colgate-white ruffled shirt, socks, and gloves, and a dazzling boutonniere. In the video for “Blue Light” we see him in a moment of introspection, removing his makeup, revealing his real-life-distinctive tattoos. He’s alone at the end of a party which is spiraling into hedonism. Kitsch set design, including a Martini Rossi ashtray, cocktail olives on a plastic spear, a red rose, speak to a vintage ’70s dissolution.
Photo: Teitur Ardal / Courtesy of Carl Hjelm Sandqvist
