Little Dragon is a band from Gothenburg, Sweden that formed in 1996. Although they formed in 1996, they did not release any music until 2006 with their first single “Test”/”’4ever” from their 2007 album, Little Dragon. The genre that would best define them is electropop, a genre largely characterized by a heavy electronic instrumentation, although, they have dipped into other genres such as soul, trip hop, and multiple others. Since their first release in 2007, they have released 4 more albums: Machine Dreams (2009), Ritual Union (2011), Nabuma Rubberband (2014), and Season High (2017) in addition to multiple standalone singles and many collaborations with other artists. One of the main elements of this band that has enticed many is the unique vocals of lead singer Yukimi Nagano, as well as the music composed by her and the other three band members: Erik Bodin, Fredrik Källgren Wallin, Håkan Wirenstrand. Through this article I will be shortly outlining the sound of each album and single in order for you to figure out whether or not you want to listen to them, and if so, where you should start.

Out of their currently five albums, the most unique sounding one would have to be their debut, Little Dragon. Released in 2007, this self-titled album brought forth a solid debut solidifying their basic sound of electropop while also exploring a bit of R&B most evident in the track “After the Rain”. Much of the music in this album is very ballad-like being driven by Yukimi Nagano’s vocals such as in the piano-ballad and leading track “Twice”, and despite containing many electronic sounds still retains a very organic feeling. This album overall has a very relaxing and mellow vibe compared to the music they produced later.

This album is great if you:

• Are looking for a relaxing and mellow album
• Are looking for organic sounds

This might not be the album for you if you:

• Are looking for something more danceable or uptempo
• Are looking for a more full sonic landscape

Favorite Tracks:

Little Dragon’s sophmore album Machine Dreams (2009) moves away from the soul ballad sound of their debut while still sticking to their base sound of electropop. This album definitely has more of a dance vibe to it compared to their debut, but still is heavily driven by the vocals of Yukimi Nagano. One of the defining characteristics of this album is the mainly kick and snare driven drum patterns which is a contrast against their first album’s heavy usage of clap sounds. This album also explores dream pop, which is most evident in the track “Feather”, which as the genre’s name implies, contains a very dream-like atmosphere.

This album is great if you:

• Are looking for a mixture of more relaxing and uptempo music
• Are looking for a great mixture of electronic and organic sounds

This might not be the album for you if you:

• Are looking for mostly organic sounds
• Are not a fan of striking drum beats

Favorite Tracks:

Ritual Union (2011) is the perfect meld between the sounds of Little Dragon’s debut and sophmore albums. It still—of course—contains their signature electro pop sound, but also returns to more of the r&b sounds that their debut contained. And like Machine Dreams, this album also is much more danceable than their debut. Although in contrast, it is more organic than Machine Dreams. If you’re looking for what I would recommend to be the perfect starting point for Little Dragon, I would point you to this album (As a side note, this is Little Dragon’s first album to chart signifying a bit more popularity for the band).

This album is great if you:

• Are looking for some mid-tempo dance music
• Are looking for an organic sound while still having a bit of electronic sounds

This might not be the album for you if you:

• Are looking for more electronic sounds like in Machine Dreams
• Are looking for higher energy dance music

Favorite Tracks:

Nabuma Rubberband (2014), Little Dragons 4th, and most popular album, although still following the same sound of their previous music in a sense, also creates an entirely new sound for them. With percussion and bass lines that are almost indistinguishable at times the sound of Nabuma Rubberband is very different compared to the other albums. This album essentially, is Little Dragon’s most danceable album out of anything they have released thus far. And in comparison to their first three albums, this one is incredibly electronic sounding. Despite these differences, Nabuma Rubberband is still an incredibly solid release with much more high energy dance music while still harkening back to their debut with ballads like “Cat Rider” and “Only One”.

This album is great if you:

• Are looking for higher energy dance music
• Are looking for something more electronic

This might not be the album for you if you:

• Are looking for an organic sound
• Are not a fan of electronic drums

Favorite Tracks:

Season High (2017) is Little Dragons most recent album, released in April of last year. This album features instrumentation that has a very similar vibe to their previous album, Nabuma Rubberband, but, it definitely has a sound more similar to their debut with songs featuring more ballad sounding vocals. Although it does have more ballad vocal tracks like “Butterfly” and “Don’t Cry” it still contains dance tracks like “Celebrate” and “Sweet”. This album shows that Little Dragon has found a sound that really works for them, and if you don’t want to listen to Ritual Union as your first Little Dragon album, I would recommend Season High in its place.

This album is great if you:

• Are looking for a sample of all of Little Dragon’s sounds
• Are looking for slower music

This might not be the album for you if you:

• Are looking for just dance or ballad type music
• Are looking for dance music on the level of energy of Nabuma Rubberband

Favorite Tracks:

Little Dragon has released many singles, but the ones I will be listing here are those not attached to an album yet, or will never be attached to an album.

Non-album singles:

• Sunshine
• Peace of Mind

TBA:

• Sway Daisy
• Best Friends

In addition, Little Dragon has done a massive amount of collaborations with other artists, and as it would be tedious to list them all here, I will list a few of my favorites below.

• BULLETS (Kaytranada)
• Empire Ants (Gorillaz)
• Drawn (De La Soul)

If you’re looking to start listening to Little Dragon, this should be an adequate guide to show you where to start. Although anywhere is perfect of course, as mentioned previously I would still recommend starting with Ritual Union or Season High. Happy listening!