Yukimi & Little Dragon – Make Me Whole

Listen to “Make Me Whole” by Yukimi & Little Dragon on plusfm, from the album “For You“.

Label : Ninja Tune
© 2025 Ninja Tune

For nearly three decades, Yukimi Nagano has led the Swedish electronic band Little Dragon, formed while she was in her first year of high school. Remarkably, For You is her first solo album but bears the confidence of someone who has been doing this for more than half their life. So much so that the songs don’t need to be wrapped up with a bow; they often trail off or stop rather abruptly—and it doesn’t hurt the experience at all.

Nagano tries on different moods, playing it vixenish with a little purr for the excellent “Elinam,” and going feathery on the jazzy, soulful “Make Me Whole,” which features percussion like the fluttering wings of a bird in a cage. She hits a glass-shattering note on R&B-inflected “Runaway” and drops a classic “can’t stand the rain” lyrical reference. “Peace Reign” is trip-hop chill, carefree and felicitous. Nagano has also collaborated with the Swedish nu-jazz group Koop, and that spirit continues here on “No Prince,” combining that genre’s ambience with a hip-hop beat and her free-form vocals blowing in and out.

“Stream of Consciousness” features a verse from Lianne La Havas—her sweet voice a lovely complement to Yukimi’s plush tone, as their harmonies shimmer like a reflecting pool. La Havas also adds guitar on “Break Me Down,” a self-empowerment anthem with a liquid-gold bass line: “Don’t put me in a box/ With the facts you steal/ As I break through the wall/ As I scream in a hall.” Other guests include Nagano’s father, Yusuke, on “Feels Good to Cry,” and an extra-smooth Pos from De La Soul on “Jaxon.”

Named for her son, who has “a will of steel and a heart of gold,” the song is like Nagano conjuring a calming protection spell. She also pulls off some magic on “Winter Is Not Dead,” which Nagano has said is about making the most of Scandinavia’s long, dark season: “The lack of light brings many of us down. At the same time, underground, life thrives … I also grow during my personal winter seasons, even though things might feel dead on the surface.” Its cartoonish strings are like tentative steps on ice, a cautious but determined rhythm.

“Winter I love her she wraps herself cold, around me I slow down my feet,” Nagano sings, layering on beatbox-esque sounds. And “Sad Make-Up” is a honeydripper with bass that hits you in the gut, as she continues to learn to live with uncomfortable feelings. “Oh, I’ve been riding on this sadness for so long … But vibrations don’t lie, they don’t lie, they don’t lie.”

© Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Yukimi & Little Dragon – Make Me Whole