Sjung 酷我

Sjung (Swedish for "Sing") is the fourth studio album by Iranian-Swedish singer-songwriter Laleh, which was released on January 25, 2012 on Warner Music Sweden and Lost Army.

The album follows her appearance on popular Swedish TV show "S mycket bttre" in 2011, with the physical release of the album containing a second disc featuring her interpretations from the show. All of these interpretations were also released as a digital download only EP preceding the album on 25 December 2011 called Tolkningarna (Interpretations).

The first single from the album was "Some Die Young", which was released in Sweden on 22 January. The song was performed by Laleh for the first time at the P3 Guld Awards on January 21 in Gothenburg. She performed alongside other artists including Veronica Maggio, First Aid Kit and Fibes, Oh Fibes! at the Sveriges Radio P3 event. The album is produced, written, recorded, engineered and performed by Laleh.

Sjung received mostly positive reviews from music critics. The Swedish website, Kritiker, which assigns a normalised rating out of 5.0 to reviews from mainstream critics across the country gave the album a average score of 3.6, based on 21 reviews, which indicates favourable reviews. This score was identical to that given to her debut album, and improved upon her previous two albums. Markus Larsson of Aftonbladet compared Laleh to Canadian singer Feist, saying that "Feist's music sometimes feels like Laleh's big sister". He went on to say that the album is like a "Spotify-list of Laleh favourites" with "multiple influences that haunts today's most modern pop music". He ends by calling this Laleh's "second breakthrough". Anders Jaderup of Sydsvenskan praised the album for being less sprawling than her previous releases and stepping "towards conventional mainstreampop without losing either the personality or the mixture of seriousness and fun as always influenced her music". He picked out "Vrens frsta dag" (Spring's First Day) as showing "exuberant energy" and being a "great pop song". In a review for local newspaper Norran, Per Strmbro praised laleh's producing and said that the record was "often quite grand, with big words and concepts". Nanushka Yeaman from Dagens Nyheter praised the personal feel to the album which is "nice and touching". They went on to say that "this is Laleh's strongest album to date and there is no doubt that she will take festival-Sweden this summer". Anders Nunstedt, music editor from the Swedish tabloid Expressen, said the album may well be the "year's big Swedish pop record". He noted that "the step from African rhythms [on "Elephant"] to the Abba-drama that bloom in the chorus of "Some Die Young" is great, and that the gentle soul which appears in "Who started it" is at another musical discipline than the feverish indie pop that stains the "Vrens frsta dag", but Laleh's songs connect... in spite of all genres and language changes".

Metro critic Peter Lindholm gave a mixed review of the album, saying that it "is full of impressions of other artists", but added that "Laleh absorbs influences from all possible directions and moves effortlessly between languages. Sjung is also her best to date, although it feels somewhat disturbing that eight of the eleven songs are in English and three in Swedish. Peter Carlsson in Nerikes Allehanda said that the album is "her best to date, although it feels somewhat disturbing that eight of the eleven songs are in English and three in Swedish". Linn Dupont in Helsingborgs Dagblad said that the album "is straight and direct. Laleh stays on the mat, but still flying among the clouds in her own charming way. "Vrens frsta dag" has already been praised. I understand why. Laleh is best in Swedish and so here too. But the bonus songs from "S mycket bttre' does not make any difference. Her fourth album feels like "Easy with Laleh" - easy for those who did not have her music for themselves before". She ends by noting that "2005 [was] Laleh's year. Now it's time again, along with a new audience". The Uppsala Nya Tidning gave the album a mixed review, stating that "the main problem with Sing is that it is an uneven album. Sprawling in the wrong way. And there is something irritating in this by mixing English songs with some Swedish. I do not buy it... Laleh loses momentum and it pulls down the score". It finishes by saying that it is still "Laleh's best album to date"[5] However, Svenska Dagbladet's Dan Backman took a dislike to the album, saying that she got "a second breakthrough by TV4 series S mycket bttre... unfortunately, she follows up the success of cover songs from S mycket bttre with a largely pretty weak album", believing that the record was produced for radio, ultimately reducing the music. He added that the recordings from the TV show on the second disc when "decoupled from the ingratiating performer cosiness at the dinner table... are painfully flat".