Listening Love: Jens Lekman
Click to viewIf there's anything I like more than a Canadian musician, it's a Swedish one. The Swedes have taken control of my iPod, Jens Lekman being among the most heavily rotated. His 2007 release, Night Falls Over Kortedala was on many "Best Of" lists at the end of the calendar year, but I hadn't quite gotten into him until just very recently. His sound is quirky, as demonstrated by the above Sipping on Sweet Nectar, a cross between the funk pop of the sixties and the indie guitar scene of late. In my head, I imagine Bob Barker and his beauties dancing to Sipping on the set of The Price is Right. Like so many things, it makes sense in my head but may have no real place in reality.
Jens' songs are lyrically complex, witty yet melancholy, his The Opposite of Hallelujah and I'm Leaving Because I Don't Love You exemplifying his wordplay. As he sings in Hallelujah: All my metaphors fell flat, down on the rocks we sat / She said: where are you at? / Sister, it's the opposite of Hallelujah / It's the opposite of being you / You don't know because it passes right thru ya, you don't know what I'm going through. Yeah, could be whiny, somewhat like Simple Plan's You Don't Know What It's Like, but Jens manages to pull it of without sounding like a five year old arguing for candy purchasing rights in a grocery store.
If you like indie pop, Jens is definitely worth checking out. Come to find out, his record company, Secretly Canadian, is right here in Bloomington. I've decided to stalk their website so I know when Jens is coming back in town (he was here in October... too bad I hadn't heard of him at that time). I hear his concerts are something like a campfire singalong. I'm all over the campfire singalong.
Also: It could just be that I'm really gay, but I'm digging Sarah Brightman's new CD, Symphony. It's filled with everything one has come to expect from Andrew Lloyd Webber's ex-wife: drama, soaring vocals, and quiet, contemplative pieces wedged between mammoth productions. Call it a guilty pleasure.