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Sunday, August 19, 2012

Goff's Pick of the Week- Night Falls Over Kortedala by Jens Lekman



Let me describe what I did today. I woke up, and I got a sandwich, and I listened to Jens Lekman’s Night Falls Over Kortedala. Now, let me talk about the sandwich. All throughout my first year and a half of college if you had walked to the nearest Subway and asked what Steve Goff gets on his sandwich you would have been told buffalo chicken, flatbread, American cheese, and lettuce. More recently I traded out the buffalo chicken for teriyaki, I switched to Italian herb and cheese, and I dropped the lettuce. And while that sandwich was quite satisfactory for me, it filled my needs, I made a change today. With Jens whispering in my ear, when I got to the counter and they asked what type of cheese I would like, I pondered and replied Swiss. Now I had never had Swiss up to this point, but something about it seemed so obvious, with Sweden’s premier singer songwriter in my head and Switzerland’s premier cheese in my stomach, everything was alright.  And that’s how I feel about Jens, even though of course he is not Swiss, he is just different enough from American that it makes him interesting to put on your sandwich… err I mean listen too.

                You might think when listening to the first two tracks of Night Falls Over Kortedala that Jens Lekman is a very serious song writer and that he is obsessed with his first kiss. Both songs are serious in tone, sporting lyrics like “I would never kiss anyone who didn’t burn me like the sun” and “I see myself on my deathbed saying I wish I had loved less”. And while those songs are probably the two most serious on the album, and are by far not the most emotional, which is something immediately refreshing about Jens. The third song of the album is the one that really sets the tone of the record and that would be Postcards to Nina. The song is the story of Jens pretending to be the boyfriend of a lesbian friend so that she can continue to see her girlfriend. As Jens meets the father of his friend Nina, the song becomes funny as Lekman stumbles over his words, gets kicked by Nina under the table, and they all sit down to listen to one of Jens’ records. Other songs on the record are similarly silly, preserving a sense of wit without really straying from Lekman’s melancholy style of songwriting. In terms of how Lekman straddles seriousness and humor I would compare him to the American folksinger Loudon Wainwright III. Loudon too was able to convey strong emotions in offbeat songs and then turn around and sing a very serious somber song.

What makes Lekman unique of course is his style. Using heavy samplings of songs that sound like they could be the theme song for a cruise commercial, the entire album is reminiscent of the title track off of the Avalanches’ Since I Left You. It has that sort of feel that makes it extremely strange to listen too but at the same time feels right. The production is very good, never really interfering with Jens’ deadpan delivery but giving the songs something extra that they would not otherwise have.

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