Jens Lekman- Night Falls Over Kortedala

!!!

(it better be this good, or else I'll be very sad...I love Jens)

http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/34151.SC160.jpg?

i am totally in love with this.

JORDAN SARGENT IN INDIE ALBUM WUV SHOCKA

but srsly, i'm downloading this now..

JORDAN SARGENT IN INDIE ALBUM WUV SHOCKA

idk if that's sarcasm or not, but i do like a lot of, ahem, "indie."

This is great so far...Those orchestral bursts on the first track...man, they're actually spine-tingling.

I assume these songs are about being a lovely person but, alas, not getting any sex?

Chix love this dude.

are there fewer jokes? i can't take his jokey lyrics.

there are some jokes, but idk if it's more or less in relation to his other stuff. to be honest, this thing is so sonically beautiful and pristine that i haven't even gotten around to paying attention to/delving into the lyrics just yet.

is it better than the last montt mardie record?

this guy is is annoying.
can't stand his voice and the attempt for "cute" pastiche.

u mean shit like this:
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j171/mdanielwalter/jens3thm.jpg
http://imemine.blogg.se/images/jens_lekman_pic_1149109754.jpg

LOL

The above pictures are pretty bad, but Jens is a standup dude. When I saw him he played his whole set, extended that, and did an encore, and then offered to continue playing outside to whoever wanted to to stay, which he certainly did. I like his music quite a bit even in spite of distancing myself from errr, indie wuv.

Still. Dude's a bit of a spanner.

after listening to the first 3 songs I think this album is a little too fruity. the new caribou wasn't that great either.

I've listened to this a bit now. I should have known what I was getting myself into ;_;

Think I'll just stick with Stephin Merritt from now on. kthx.

are those tears?

soz, to clear up, i meant this: http://www.clipartof.com/images/xsmall/2214.gif

It's good but no where near as good as you made it out to be (and using the same riff as John Mayer = major ;_;)...FS/LS still in the lead.

I get that he's like a twee ponce or whatever, but I still really hate his vocals on this album. He's either trying to be Moz or Merritt way too hard.

It's jus not for me i guess.

listening to john mayer= major ;_;, but whatever.

are we comparing every album to FS/LS now? why don't we start a thread called "Tape Store TS: FutureSex/LoveSounds vs. Album X"? every good song on that album is a single, anyway.

jens has always been pretty love/hate. you have to have a pretty high tolerance for woe is me stuff and really self-referential lyrics and anecdotal songs.

that being said, (as i've already stated) i find the arrangements on the album to be nearly perfect for a modern classic pop album. but then again, i do also love jens as a songwriter/lyricist.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/helgap.gif
Jens Lekman- Night Falls Over Kortedala
this leaked a few days ago. best pop album of the past 2-3 years, i think. a totally immersible album with pristine production. everything from the pianos, horns, keys, drums, etc. sounds absolutely perfect and it all gets plenty of room to breathe

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/hn.gif
but then again, i do also love jens as a songwriter/lyricist. the man is a virtuoso in every sense of the word.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/helga.gif
are we comparing every album to FS/LS now? why don't we start a thread called "Tape Store TS: FutureSex/LoveSounds vs. Album X"? every good song on that album is a single, anyway.

A+++++++++++++++++++

http://www.geocities.com/kirstz22/hheart.gif
!!!

(it better be this good, or else I'll be very sad...I love Jens)

-- Tape Store, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 1:18 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.geocities.com/kirstz22/cecil.gif
It's good but no where near as good as you made it out to be (and using the same riff as John Mayer = major ;_;)...FS/LS still in the lead.

-- Tape Store, Friday, August 17, 2007 3:59 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.gay.hr/web/smilies/goal.gif

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j171/mdanielwalter/jens3thm.jpg

it's just so cute! and the production on "kanske ar jag kar i dig" is fucking beautiful!

"Your Arms Around Me" is gorgeous, as is the rest.

Great record. Sinking in day by day.

1/4 great, 3/4 filler.

I'm liking his cover of Arthur Russell's "A Little Lost"

1/4 great, 3/4 filler.

Which 1/4?

this album is a dissapointment. too flowery. just like the new caribou. i prefer the original 'a little lost' but the youtube video for it is excellent.

the first track is totally ripping off scott walker's montague terrace (in blue). enough said

1/4 great, 3/4 filler

I prefer 12/8

i think it's more barry manilow than scott walker. i quite like it.

<i>I prefer 12/8</i>

Carter Beauford on the drums! Carter Beauford on the drums!

this album is a dissapointment. too flowery

Isn't this like accusing Morrissey of being too morose?

after listening to the first 3 songs I think this album is a little too fruity. the new caribou wasn't that great either.

-- CaptainLorax, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 7:25 PM (3 weeks ago)

this album is a dissapointment. too flowery. just like the new caribou. i prefer the original 'a little lost' but the youtube video for it is excellent.

-- CaptainLorax, Sunday, September 9, 2007 7:03 AM (Yesterday)

Thank you for your valuable input, Captain Redundant.

From the Caribou-Andorra thread:
After the first 1 & 1/2 listens to Andorra, I don't like this album at all. Too flowery for me and I like belle and sebastian.
This reminds me of what happened to the latest jens lekman album.

-- CaptainLorax, Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:30 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

Hahaha

can lorax start a blog where he rates everything in terms of floweriness?

The great 1/4 is, froom what I recall, "Shirin", "Drive-In Bingo" and "Postcard to Nina".

ok, i don't mind this now.

Can't remember what its called but the one that sounds like the Smiths with disco strings is kick-ass

I really enjoyed Jens' performance at Pitchfork two years ago, but neither of his albums really clicked with me. This, however, is pretty fantastic.

If he's going to croon, he'd better be a good singer. And he's not. Sorry, but if you're going to do this kind of stuff, you have to have chops.

I was disappointed at first because the lyrics felt clunkier and less clever than in the past. However, it's really grown on me. Highlights: "Kanske Är Jag Kär I Dig," "Shirin," "Opposite of Hallelujah" and "A Postcard to Nina" (despite being the clunkiest of the clunky lyrics).

Wait, why am I posting on ILM?

rich smorg offtm.

If this guy gets any more Charlie Brown, his next album is going to be about trying to kick a football.

High point of this = getting emails from Nina's father

I'm giving this another try, because I know what he's trying to do. But so far I can't help but compare it, unfavorably, to Scott Walker and any number of better-produced 60's groups. (Yeah, I keep hearing cheesy midi strings ...or something)

Charlie Brown is still Charlie Brownier, though. He's the Charlie Browniest.

First time I played this two months ago I thought it was garbage. I've played it constantly in the last two weeks. I'll try to go back to the earlier stuff but I don't get the sense I really missed anything this album doesn't deliver. Musically alone, there are some incredible moments on this, particularly "A Postcard to Nina" and the glorious last two minutes of "Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig"--the way the horns build and splash to the shore, as well as that a cappella doo-wop refrain, renders me gaga. I also like the lyrics a lot, probably for similarly geeky reasons.

older stuff is a little more bedroom-y and based way more on guitar than his newer songs. but if you're digging the real orchestral feel of night falls, there are some songs on the compilation (you're so silent jens) that kind of indulge his more schmaltzy side, but they sound kind of canned (i'm assuming bcuz of budget reasons) (i'm talking about a song like "maple leaves" which is still beautiful) compared to the way a lot of the sounds on night falls really blossom.

really otm about "a postcard to nina" and "kanske", which are probably my two fav songs on the album. i would throw "friday night at the drive in bingo" in there too in terms of those three having a looser, more clattering feel. he (intentionally, i'm sure) nearly stumbles over the rapid end of "friday night" like he does on "a postcard to nina".

I'm also liking his lyrical persona a lot more than I expected to. "Kanske" is a good example--the way the first verse seems daft and then he turns the corner and explains it away as date jitters. That kind of thing can be really mawkish (and my sense that Lenkman did that was a lot of why I avoided him before), but his matter-of-factness helps its charm enormously. (Ditto his semi-deadpan in "Nina": "Oh! God! Jesus Christ!"

it's pretty plainly obvious why ppl are turned off by his lyrics, but there's a lot of understood humor in his whole persona that really draws me in (maybe thats just something i identify with), be it with just a lyric like "the dreamer just make believe/ but i thought she said maple leaves" or a whole verse like "i picked up a seashell/l to illustrate my homelessness/ but a crab crawled out of it/ making it useless". he very clearly magnifies mini-heartbreaks and mini-triumphs, but shrugs both off with a kind of aw-shucksness that i think is pretty relatable.

Going to see this fella tonight in Kilburn.

I saved "The Opposite of Hallelujah" and a couple of others, but his voice isn't up to his melodies.

Techically, I agree with Alfred, but I've grew to adore the voice, even at its most foghorny (like the opening cut); I prefer him as a singer to Merritt (an obvious forebear tonally), or at least on this album. I'm surprised how much I really like it; it's jumped onto my Top 10 list, though I may change its position again before my vote goes in.

Agreed that his voice isn't all that, but it's not terrible, and he has a total mastery of what he's trying to do with his songs, structurally, the stories he wants to tell.

I wasn't a huge fan before this album, but "night falls" is top class.

I have totally mixed feelings about stuff like this. I've never heard earlier Jens and while he's definitely doing some good stuff I don't know how long this record will stay with me. He's clearly at his best when he's telling a story so the middle portion of the record ("eternity," "if I could cry," that stuff) is a complete blur. I'm a bit surprised to see some praise on this thread for the production, which to me is totally forgettable. He's getting by on lyrics and melodies (I enjoy his voice too, I must admit). Tunes like "Nina" and "Drive-in Bingo" will be hard to forget, but then I think things like "When the hell was the last time I listened to 69 Love Songs," or for that matter any such exercise in classicism? It's such a fleeting pleasure for me.

Not sure there's anything wrong with a fleeting pleasure. there will be more than enough music next year. (not an entirely facetious point either. I really try not to penalize records that I suspect won't age well, because who knows?)

also, i should have said "(the tracks i've heard from) night falls (are) top class." because i really only have about 6 of them.

the Merritt comparison's a good one, and I need to think about it some more – how Lenkman's more "traditional" arrangements compensate for his vocal limitations versus Merritt's synthezied ones.

Billy, I hear you that there's nothing wrong with fleeting pleasure, but it's still tough to make that comparison when there are records I've had for years that I still really enjoy digging out.

There are also enjoyable records that you don't unearth for years.

agreed. i just try to remind myself that there's no way in advance of knowing which ones are going to be those go-to records, that's all.

x-post

i love this album so much

One of my favourite albums of all time.

yup, still fresh and still amazing

he is doing some release a song-a-week project this year I think?? anyone keeping up w/ that?

i have, both songs that have come out so far have been very entertaining and enjoyable

know nothing of song a week project. this album is gorgeous though.

what's broken can always be fixed / what's fixed will always be broken

there's definitely a magnetic fields or cole porter element to the light verse of the lyrics, which can go from whimsical to arresting at the turn of a phrase. i wish more songwriters could do this effectively.

The way he sings that line breaks my heart. Just reading the lyrics make me want to put it on repeat for the rest of the night.

aw young earnest j0rdan

I like a lot more of this album than I remembered, also I am in a more appropriate headspace for Jens these days. still can't get past the intro of "it was a strange time in my life" though

I was listening to some early Scott Walker the other day and it reminded me of the lead track on this.

reminder abt all these, i havent kept up but dipped in and out & listening to some now

https://soundcloud.com/jens-lekman

.@JensLekman's ‘Night Falls Over Kortedala’ is leaving this life and heading into eternity. Purchase the record, download the digital album, & stream it for the last time by March 21st

Sharing your condolences in the YouTube chat on March 21st at 11am EST pic.twitter.com/jQNraLtkZ1

— Secretly Canadian (@secretlycndian) March 15, 2022

what??? did he finally get sued over a sample or something because removing the album from sale completely is bizarre & extreme without any explanation

And from streaming too! This is really bizarre.

The really short, less than a week, notice makes me think it is sample based, in reaction to a threatened lawsuit or cease and desist, or something.

Great album though, a shame to see it lost to history.

Huh...if it's a sample, why not just remove that one track? Unless it says a "that compromises the integrity of the album, fuck it, take the whole thing down" situation.

I have a complicated relationship to the past. Everyone who writes and has had some form of success does. When my album Oh You’re So Silent Jens was taken down ten years ago due to sample issues, I almost felt a relief. The past had become too heavy. It's hard to explain but it used to bother me when someone said they liked something I’d done in the past. It was like... Imagine you’re 40, like me, and someone said ”I saw a photo of you when you were 21, you looked really good back then”. That's a nice thing to say but it can also unintentionally translate to ”you don’t look that good anymore”. And it feels the same way with a song, especially if you’re still trying to write new songs. So the album was gone and I thought that would make me feel better but the effect was much more extreme than I thought. Because of streaming and the way we've been listening to music the last ten years it was like the album had never existed. For any new listener that album is not even a gap in the record collection. It has no absence, there's no void, unless you know exactly where it was supposed to have been. And over time these old songs have become like new songs. Several times after playing Black Cab live, a young person has come up and said ”I liked that new song you played called Black Cab, when is that coming out?”.
So during this pandemic I worked on restoring a lot of my old recordings from this era to be able to re-release them. Some songs had to be re-recorded from scratch as I’d recorded over the original tapes. Others could be remixed or left as they were. Unreleased demos were dug up and finished. If I was Bartlebooth I guess I would be in the jigsaw puzzle phase. It’s been fascinating, like I’ve had a compassionate dialogue between my current self and my 21 year old self. I think I look a lot better today than when I was 21 but I could write some pretty good tunes back then. It’s made me like myself more. It’s made me understand where I am. To know where you are you need to know where you came from.
Sometimes I’ve fantasized about including a clause in my will about having all traces of myself erased once I’m dead. Placing my songs in a detergent solution and leaving nothing but white sheets behind. But that’s nonsense, I know. Pure narcissism in disguise. What I leave to the world belongs to the world. I donate it to you like I donate my body to science. I will from now on carry a donor card in my wallet that says ”After my death - any song I’ve ever written and anything I’ve ever posted on my blog - may be used for the benefit of others. Take this old flesh, learn something from it. Carve in it. Tear it to pieces. Delete it if you want or frame it in a museum. Read my growth rings like a tree, my musical calcifications. Laugh with me and laugh at me. I was a human. No more, no less."

https://www.jenslekman.com/records/smalltalk.htm

Huh. Not going to begrudge him his wishes, but I wish his new version could coexist with the original, not replace it.

Night Falls Over Kortedala (Taylor's Version)

there's a big difference between re-recording & re-releasing oh you're so silent jens, which was already unavailable, and removing night falls over kortedala from sale & streaming to do the same (if that is indeed what's happening, there's no confirmation there)

Yeah, I missed that he was talking about re-recording Silent there. Maybe this is a hint that he is planning to do the same for Night Falls?

I honestly hadn't realized Silent was gone either though.

looking forward to the newly finished unreleased demos from the vault though

but it's a bit disappointing because this likely means there's not anything properly new on the way anytime soon and he works at such a glacial pace

I've certainly noticed the absence of Silent from streaming because every year or so I want to foist "Maple Leaves" on people. (Not sure how much mileage I'd get out of a non-infringing rearrangement of that sampletastic thing, come to think of it. Maybe I'll find out.)

god i love this album. spun it for the first time in a while last night and had somehow forgotten how big the backbeat was on some of these tracks–"danceable" isn't the first word i think of when i think of jens, but it certainly fits here, especially on some of those tracks on the album's second half.

love the way he plays with tempo on the sped-up sections of "hallelujah" and "drive-in bingo" (which has always been my personal favorite).

secretly is streaming the album live right now (for the last time????): youtube.com/watch?v=jtHvuY-wXys

Guess I should have taken this seriously and tried to buy an LP. I see they're all sold out and the only one for sale on discogs is $275? It's still on spotify but I'm assuming that won't last long.

Anyone selling on discogs right now is specifically trying to profit off of this news.

btw night falls over kortedala still lives online in unlisted form at that link i shared above (until they wise up and take it down)

Been removed from his Bandcamp page but still shows as a purchase in my app/feed, so there's that...

When I saw this news I thought “good thing I got it on vinyl” but I was wrong! I was thinking of the compilation (which I adore)

I love him for the casual Life a Users Manual reference.

wait is he really re-recording oh you're so silent jens...

it's made pretty clear in his blog post linked above, says he wants to re-release it but has to avoid the sample issues that have kept it unavailable for the past decade & has recorded over some of the original tapes so some of it needs to be re-recorded from scratch

I was under the impression that Jens had already re-recorded various samples after their initial release... it could be my imagination but I thought that "Black Cab" in its original pre-Oh You're So Silent Jens form had a full-tilt Left Banke sample

I wish he could just get those samples cleared! The re-interpretative quality of those early songs was so much a part of the enjoyment

you're not wrong about "black cab" and i think "maple leaves," both of which had a few alternate versions with slightly-altered instrumentals

there were two different versions of "maple leaves" on oh you're so silent jens with some slightly different samples iirc, not sure if there were any others out there

i think the left banke sample is still there in the version of "black cab" on the album too

no idea which samples were at fault for the album getting taken down either

^ not "Oh You're So Silent Jens", I don't even think it's harpsichord on the album, sounds like a mandolin or something. What a perfect song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PojymCxpb4

ah here's the version without the sample

"Black Cab" is a magical song

Black Cab might be my favorite song. Thank god it is on youtube.

I really am saddened by the removal of Night Falls.

this must be what the opposite of hallelujah feels like

I wasn't imagining it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpgkG4TIyvE

GOD this song

well maybe i am, maybe i am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roMN1t4amXY

this is a charming performance of the opposite of hallelujah to hold people over until night falls is available again

the album still lives online at this unlisted link! (for now)

youtube.com/watch?v=jtHvuY-wXys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMAml2wdwQ4

sweet

surprised i couldn't find more footage of you together. Great memories of the Toronto Great Hall show.

he’s just posted ‘maple leaves - out tomorrow’ on his ig story

https://open.spotify.com/album/44Wa9N8w6M2VFRddtbnbX3

not just maple leaves, the entire oh you're so silent jens remake has gotten a surprise release!

now titled the cherry trees are still in blossom, it adds some interludes, a recording of "eureka" which looks to be a track he played live but never released, a new version of "julie" titled "the cherry trees are still in blossom", and an acoustic version of black cab, but removes the second version of "maple leaves"

hmm really do not know how to feel about the new "maple leaves", he's reworked it as an acoustic ballad with strings. it's gorgeous but as a replacement for the original and the only version widely available, it's totally disappointing. if this was a bonus track i'd love it but where's a version that's anything like the original! where are those propulsive drums!

new "black cab" is wonderful though! slightly different but totally does it justice

oh crazy! i just posted the julie video on another thread, didnt realise the whole album was out. listening now...

hmm showing up as all grayed-out tracks for me. Are you all in europe?

australia

his voice on the new black cab seems weird?

ufo OTM re: "Maples Leaves". Though it was always going to be a high-degree-of-difficulty move when the original versions were like the canonical How To Fruitfully Sample Stuff For Pop Songs, non-hip-hop/dance music division lol. (In my tiny brain anyway.)

i don't have any doubt he would have been capable of suitably recreating "maple leaves" though, even if the arrangement had to be tweaked a bit.

kind of a weird project where some of the tracks are barely changed from the original (only a tiny sample at the start of "sky phenomenon" removed otherwise it's the original recording) but a lot of tracks are totally re-recorded so there's pretty wild fluctuation in recording fidelity track-to-track. think he said it was due to some of the original master tapes being available but others were lost or too sample-dependent, but it's means it's not quite here or there

his voice on the new black cab seems weird?

yeah it sounds a little deeper, might just be the passing of 19 years idk

wow the new "black cab" ... never heard a version of this song that wasn't absolutely perfect

the new "maple leaves" is perfect in its own way i made peace with its existence before the second verse

"the cherry trees in blossom" is maybe the best thing here, easily the best version of that song & the new lyrics posing it as a sequel to the original "julie" are a nice touch

https://boomkat.com/products/the-linden-trees-are-still-in-blossom

reworked Night Falls Over Kortedala out in two weeks too!

it has 6 tracks added on the end:
Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death - Scout Niblett cover for a compilation
Our Last Swim in the Ocean - demo included on pre-order bonus EP Kalendervägen 113.D
A Little Lost - Arthur Russell cover for a compilation
Radio NRJ - B-side to "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo"
The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom - probably a sequel track like "The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom" but I don't think there's an obvious lyrical link
When I'm Swimming - no idea what this is either

Finally a streamable version of “I saw her in the anti war demonstration” I love that song, can’t really hear a difference on this version and the original one, but it’s been years since I last heard it.

No idea why he didn’t become one of the most important and popular figures in indie pop/rock. There’s so many brilliant songs in here.

"i saw her in the anti-war demonstration" is one that i'm not sure has been changed or re-recorded at all

it seems like he probably was pretty well-positioned to reach a higher level of success after night falls over kortedala but that didn't eventuate due to him taking 5 years to release i know what love isn't, which got a relatively underwhelming reception. he's also just been not very prolific in terms of actual albums since nfok. his output is a bit higher if you look at all the other weird little project he's done like postcards, but it's still not that substantial.

& he still puts out a bunch of stuff in weird ways that ensures that no one except the true heads ever hear it. looking at his website just now i found this wonderful 8 minute track he put out in 2019 exclusively as an mp3 download there.

http://jenslekman.com/IWantToBeInvaded.html

there's all sorts of other stuff... "wwjd" and "i remember" which were exclusive to a mix he made on soundcloud... he really needs to put out a rarities comp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyQIen0MRSU

still love "wwjd"

probably prefer the old “maple leaves,” but i kinda like how the new version removes a lot of the things that stamp it firmly in 2004, including that breakbeat and the choral samples

"i want to be invaded" is really so good how does he let something like that just be a throwaway on his website!

guh these self-covers/remakes are SO disappointingly sweet
reminds me of why i haven't been much interested in lekman's music in the past decade

too much light and glint and prettiness, ugh - the special of the old stuff was partly the dust and grit

this is on u.s. spotify now too

i'm just starting to listen to it but i'm inclined to agree with sean gramophone. i lost interest with jens bc his songs got so sappy and produced and arranged.

i don't hate this new maple leaves but it really feels like a cover, it's so reverential and slow

https://www.stereogum.com/2184655/jens-lekman-re-recording-classic-albums/interviews/qa/

interview here, he confirms nfok was indeed taken down due to legal issues with samples. also has two new albums in progress and one will be finished 'soon by his standards' so hopefully in the next year or so...?

Gotta agree with sean, I thought most of these sounded “too clean”. They’re still awesome songs but they sound even amateurish with this antiseptic treatment.

“I saw her in the antiwar demonstration” sounded pretty good to me, but maybe that one didn’t get changed? The last part did sounded different to my ears, but again it’s been awhile since I played the original songs.

Ok just compared it to the original version from a yt video from 4 years ago and it’s definitely the old version. That’s why that one sounded particularly good to my ears.

the linden trees are still in blossom is more like what i expected from this project, still very much the original album just a lot of the samples have been replaced with new overdubs. some stuff doesn't quite work or he wasn't able to recreate it properly, like the "sipping on the sweet nectar" instrumental break. biggest change is "kanske ar jag kar i dig" which has a new extended intro

obviously inferior to the original but a suitable replacement at least, works better than the more inconsistent approach of the cherry trees.

night falls over kortedala really is probably the absolute best indie pop album there is though

new fully-arranged version of "our last swim in the ocean" is lovely, it's the most essential from the bonus tracks. "when i'm swimming" was previously unreleased in any form as far as i know and it's quite nice too.

"the linden trees are still in blossom" is a "postcard to nina" sequel but unlike the "julie" sequel the new arrangement isn't revelatory

would have been nice to include some more of his other rarities from the era like the "opposite of hallejulah" b-sides

what is it with the samples suddenly? is anything else that has flown under the radar this long getting busted now?

i have no idea how he got away with it on this album for this long, but he did claim to have cleared some of the samples on it originally and that the rest were just recreations with session musicians (that part was obviously a lie)

but judging by what's been changed here he sure sampled a ton of uncleared stuff, much more than you can find listed on whosampled or anything

also not sure how he hasn't run into trouble over when i said i wanted to be your dog at all either, he was asked about that in a recent interview and said he couldn't answer

creative sentencing. he's agreed to be the rightsholders' dog.

just heard the new "Black Cab" and sorry guys, it sounds like it's for a detergent commercial now :/ (people who are like what's wrong w that shuuuut up)

Ew! Still cute but definitely worse

saw him last night in williamsburg. beautiful show. performed with a youth orchestra and created some beautiful arrangements of his classics. the stage banter was very funny. for the encore, he brought out the tracks for some of his more danceable songs, and while i’m happy he wasn’t using them for the whole show, it worked at the end.

the crowd was super super polite, for the most part. i was singing along a bit til i felt embarrassed cause i was the only one lol

He's apparently playing everywhere with youth orchestras on this tour.

Pretty bummed out about this new "Black Cab"

the old one is still around...

i love the new “black cab.” i love the clean guitar lines and the depth of his voice, texturally it feels new in a way that really works for me

yep, still hate nu-"Black Cab"

oh no goddamn

https://www.jenslekman.com/records/smalltalk.htm

he's been updating his blog for the first time in 4 years and it very much sounds like a new album is finally coming later this year

Finally! It has been too long.

New album, Songs For Other People’s Weddings, due out on Sept 12.

https://www.stereogum.com/2314673/jens-lekman-teams-with-nick-and-norahs-infinite-playlist-author-for-new-novel-and-album-songs-for-other-peoples-weddings/music/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCAAPCqXB5g

the verse is really prefab sprout except it's in 7/8 or something? great to have him back

01 The First Lovesong
02 A Tuxedo Sewn for Two
03 Candy From a Stranger
04 Two Little Pigs [ft. Matilda Sargren]
05 Speak to Me in Music
06 With You I Can Hear My Own Voice
07 I Want to Want You Again [ft. Matilda Sargren and Peter Oren]
08 GOT-JFK
09 Wedding in Brooklyn
10 For Skye
11 Increasingly Obsolete
12 On a Pier, on the Hudson [ft. Matilda Sargren]
13 Wedding in Leipzig
14 LEJ-GOT
15 You Have One New Message [ft. Matilda Sargren]
16 Just for One Moment
17 The Last Lovesong

17 tracks! he's been busy!

this thread reminded me that everyone really should check out "i want to be invaded", the 8 minute single he released only on his website to zero fanfare in 2019, it's really wonderful

https://www.jenslekman.com/IWantToBeInvaded.html

he also played a bunch of new songs on tour in 2022 that i wasn't aware of and none of them seem to be on this album? one of them is "a taste of cherry". i guess that fits with him talking about having two new albums in the works a few years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ3WiNSnQaI

"a taste of cherry" is at ~6:48 in that

This is just the best news.

You're not wrong about the Prefab Sprout influence on the single ufo. I always thought some of I Know What Love Isn't had touches of Sprout too, especially Erica America. It's a wonderful song and I cannot wait for the album.

Blown away by the new album. I haven't returned to Life Will See You Now that much, but this is everything I love about him on one album. So many of his most beautiful songs here.

Just realising this might be his Jordan: The Comeback

there's a lot to love here but the pacing is a bit off, the first half drags a bit with a lot of slower songs all in a row and is maybe a bit overly twee, but from "wedding in brooklyn" onward is all fantastic and some of his very best work. "increasingly obsolete" is my favourite

jordan: the comeback is a very good comparison yeah, both in scope & sound (at least in places)

i'm not sure the narrative really does much for me though and it's not a lyrical approach that really plays to his strengths. if anything the lyrics feel strangely irrelevant to these songs

it's just not a compelling narrative, but the lyrics don't really hold up very well without that context either. he's leaning into all his clunkiest metaphors but not in an endearing way and everything feels overwritten

it's quite a contrast with the music which is largely up with his very best work

it turns out the book comes with its own set of songs that are not the ones on the album? what an odd project

Yes, the ones that come with the book are way more stripped down. I like that approach much better TBH!

David and Jens did a very intimate book reading here in Hoboken and Jens explained that after writing the "soundtrack" that goes with the book he was compelled to write a proper album, too. I wish he titled it a little differently though cause it's confusing in that respect.

yeah i just read a bunch of interviews and so the songs that come with the book are apparently ones written in character for the fictional weddings in the book, which he originally planned to be the album but changed his mind as he thought it would make for a weird album. instead the album ended up being a kind of adaptation of the book, but one that's focused on what happens in between the book chapters, which probably helps to explain why it doesn't really work as a narrative on its own?

Yeah I can't really speak to whether it works on its own imo yet but possibly I could see how the lack of context could hurt it.

How nice it is to hear classic Jens!