Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
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CD Details
Artist: Jens LekmanEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-10-09
Music Label: Secretly Canadian
Soundtracks:
- And I Remember Every Kiss
- Sipping On The Sweet Nectar
- Opposite Of Hallelujah, The
- Postcard To Nina, A
- Into Eternity
- I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You
- If I Could Cry (It Would Feel Like This)
- Your Arms Around Me
- Shirin
- It Was A Strange Time In My Life
- Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig
- Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo
Music reviews of Night Falls Over Kortedala
Music Review: Jens, My Little Swedish Meatball
Rating: 4 Stars
Jens Lekman has certainly created a unique persona in the indie world. Shy but smooth: a sensitive Swedish crooner awash in heavy, retro orchestral sampling that has made his newest record, "Night Falls Over Kortedala", a canny Lite FM-ish twinkie that manages to be both ironic and heartfelt. Yea, it's a sugary album. Although the songs occaisonally border on high camp, they never quite cross that uncomfortable line, proving Lekman to be a smart and qwerky maestro, capable of veering easily from tunefully expressing the lustful pangs of true love, debonair as he is, to the darker shadows of introspective longing. Lekman is a successor to Morrissey, in his witty and wounded lyrics, and his wavering falsetto voice. He is also perhaps THE quintessential opening act for a Belle and Sebastian show, but Lekman's fearless studio experiments and definite capabilities as a songwriter hint at something much more interesting and nouveau; his following will surely grow, but I'm hesitant just yet to declare his peak with this album. I think Lekman has a greater masterpiece in him, and I have no doubt we'll hear it soon enough.
Lekman has created a cohesive record that simply sounds great; the songs have excellent flow and smile-inducing production. Vocally, Lekman has never been stronger. But while his previous release, "Oh, You're So Silent Jens" was a bit of a mish-mash, more a casual compilation of songs than a legit album, I enjoyed it more. Stand-out singles worthy of continuous college radio play such as "Maple Leaves" and "I Met Her in an Anti-War Demonstration" and "Black Cab" I found more memorable than any particular track on "Kortedala"--and in that way I find his newest release to be a bit of a letdown, but certainly no disappointment. Just a mixed response. It's a strange reaction, I know, to an artist I truly admire. While I haven't stopped playing the CD, none of the songs have made it to my ipod playlist.
In any case, any one moment on this record is worth six on virtually anything else out there in the indie twee world. Lekman is certainly a singer to watch and savour, and I relish his climb up the Soul Searching Ladder to the Stars.
Description of Night Falls Over Kortedala
Like a modern day Chet Baker, Jens loves to sing about heartache. This is his first album in over three years, and Kortedala refers to a neighborhood in his hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden - "a depressing suburban hell". It also refers to a vague musical pop sound with hints of tropicalia that has been coming out of Gothenburg's clubs the last few years. "Night Falls Over Kortedala" features many previously unreleased live favorites and guest vocals from label-mate Frida Hyvonen and El Perro del Mar.Halfway through the first track of Jens Lekman's finest offering yet, "And I Remember Every Kiss," a Lekman neophyte might be sure they've got him pegged. Here's another Scott-Walker-worshipping yungin; a precocious string-section crooner. To be sure, there's plenty of string-soaked melodrama here, and Lekman puts that modest Morrissey-esque croon to work throughout the album. But after the high camp Copa-Cabana disco of "Sipping on the Sweet Nectar," the breezy latin-flavored "Into Eternity," the acoustic lullaby of "Shirin" or the, uh, drive-in vibe of "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo," it's clear Lekman's ambition and sense of humor can't be confined to one small corner of imitation or appropriation. Appropriation--in the literal sense, for that matter--is one of Lekman's great strengths, as evidenced by the new context he gives his many perfect samples, be it a drum loop from the Residents and Renaldo & The Loaf record Title in Limbo, or any number of lifted orchestral bits. Lekman weaves many of his samples so seamlessly into his presentation, one is often at a loss to distinguish samples from live instruments. The end result is something like a new millennium Brill Building, with songcraft at the helm, but awash in modern production technique. Lekman's world masterfully pairs the electronic with the human. Lekman's also a pro at the sort of wry lyrical melancholia one associates with the aforementioned Morrissey, or other contemporaries like Stephen Merritt of the Magnetic Fields. He's a lot less caustic, but still plays the biographical narrator stewing in life's near misses. He's got a real silly streak, however, just as quick to pen couplets like "my heart is beating, beating like Ringo/as I pull into the drive-in bingo," or "I took my sister down to the ocean/but the ocean made me feel stupid." These lyrical gems illustrate one certainty. Night Falls Over Kortedala is unabashedly precious. Lekman's meticulously crafted, symphonic indie-pop is all saccharine indulgence, but hey, he owns it, and that makes the payoff all the more sweet. --Jason Pace
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