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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Is
Format:Audio CD
Jens Lekman peers quizzically out from the CD cover. He looks like he's five going on twenty-five, dressed in a fifties-style bobbly jumper and with tousled fifties hair. Yikes, is this the face of that deep, knowing voice? Who'd have believed it? Suddenly I think Jens is not so artless as he looks. He probably messed up his own hair before the photo-shoot to get the right vulnerable Jeff Buckley-look. (I was going to say Stig Dagerman, but nobody outside Sweden would know what on Earth I'm talking about.)
But let's leave the subject of hair, and move on to music. And very lovely music it is! Offbeat lyrics are set to sweeping, melodious arrangements, where all sorts of different instruments pop up: "You Are The Light Through Which I Travel" starts off with a Dallas-like fanfare, "Do You Remember The Riots?" is set against a hesitant violin.
There's something very cinematic about these songs, if you listen to the lyrics. He sings of a TV helicopter filming him and his girlfriend during the EU summit riots in Gothenburg - there he is on the screen, "red in the face like a lobster". Or else he croons about getting arrested for love and using his one phone call to dedicate a song to his girlfriend on the radio. Genius ideas! And who can blame him if he seems a bit infatuated with his own whimsy? Maybe Jens' trick is to be dead serious while singing OTT lines like "all the psycho-girls, why do they fall for me?" It's funny, it's sad, it's driving me nuts, I have to go and stalk Jens a little bit.
Try it if you like Jonathan Richman, Bright Eyes, Rupert Wainwright, Serge Gainsbourg.
But let's leave the subject of hair, and move on to music. And very lovely music it is! Offbeat lyrics are set to sweeping, melodious arrangements, where all sorts of different instruments pop up: "You Are The Light Through Which I Travel" starts off with a Dallas-like fanfare, "Do You Remember The Riots?" is set against a hesitant violin.
There's something very cinematic about these songs, if you listen to the lyrics. He sings of a TV helicopter filming him and his girlfriend during the EU summit riots in Gothenburg - there he is on the screen, "red in the face like a lobster". Or else he croons about getting arrested for love and using his one phone call to dedicate a song to his girlfriend on the radio. Genius ideas! And who can blame him if he seems a bit infatuated with his own whimsy? Maybe Jens' trick is to be dead serious while singing OTT lines like "all the psycho-girls, why do they fall for me?" It's funny, it's sad, it's driving me nuts, I have to go and stalk Jens a little bit.
Try it if you like Jonathan Richman, Bright Eyes, Rupert Wainwright, Serge Gainsbourg.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars
13 reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Genuine Talent
23 April 2005
By steamloaf
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
I purchased this EP late last year and, within a month, I owned every piece of music that Lekman has published. The guy is a true talent---a great ear for melody and brilliant compositional skills.
He combines simple, sweet melodies with low-res samples, blurred horn and string arrangements and quirky lyrics to deliver some of the most refreshing music I've heard in over a decade.
If you're a fan of succinct, educated conanical pop ala early-Costello or The Smiths and/or indie fare such as Belle and Sebastian (Arab Strap days,) Kings of Convenience and the Acid House Kings, then I can't recommend his music strongly enough. As with any groundbreaking body of work, its sophistication lies in its honesty and simplicity.
If you get a chance, you MUST catch one of his live shows. I saw him in Amsterdam in early-2005 and it was easily the most memorable set I've ever attended. 30 minutes into his gig, the venue's management cut-in on him, informed him of a scheduling snafu and asked him to pack-up.
Instead of abandoning his audience, he grabbed a ukulele, invited the attendees outside and finished his set in an adjacent alley. With trams jingling in the background and residents of a neighboring building cheering him on from their windows, he strummed and sang for 45 minutes, blowing-away everyone within earshot. He played simply for his love of music and a sense of obligation to those who had paid to see him. Needless to say, it was a genuinely special experience and everyone was very touched.
The guy is a true musician, a born entertainer, a consummate professional and, as such, an enormous breath of fresh air. You can't help but fall in love with his work.
He combines simple, sweet melodies with low-res samples, blurred horn and string arrangements and quirky lyrics to deliver some of the most refreshing music I've heard in over a decade.
If you're a fan of succinct, educated conanical pop ala early-Costello or The Smiths and/or indie fare such as Belle and Sebastian (Arab Strap days,) Kings of Convenience and the Acid House Kings, then I can't recommend his music strongly enough. As with any groundbreaking body of work, its sophistication lies in its honesty and simplicity.
If you get a chance, you MUST catch one of his live shows. I saw him in Amsterdam in early-2005 and it was easily the most memorable set I've ever attended. 30 minutes into his gig, the venue's management cut-in on him, informed him of a scheduling snafu and asked him to pack-up.
Instead of abandoning his audience, he grabbed a ukulele, invited the attendees outside and finished his set in an adjacent alley. With trams jingling in the background and residents of a neighboring building cheering him on from their windows, he strummed and sang for 45 minutes, blowing-away everyone within earshot. He played simply for his love of music and a sense of obligation to those who had paid to see him. Needless to say, it was a genuinely special experience and everyone was very touched.
The guy is a true musician, a born entertainer, a consummate professional and, as such, an enormous breath of fresh air. You can't help but fall in love with his work.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Come Dance With Jens Lekman!
1 Jun 2005
By el dangeroso
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
I don't know why I had never heard of Jens until recently, he's fantastic! This album has not left my cd changer and I have recently won a bloody battle with my meager wallet over ordering everything in his back catalog. Sure, he sounds like the Swedish Jonathan Richman, but you wouldn't believe what a good thing that can be. Where else will you find handclaps and doo wop dancing together in songs about starting riots, tin-drum laden birthday shout-outs, orchestras floating over lyrics promoting the joys of erotic asphyxiation, and toe tapping tunes about vandalizing luxury cars, lover's vomiting at office parties, and making out in church with an existentialist? Truly marvelous. I must say that I really don't see the Morrissey comparisons. Besides Jonathan Richman, I would think you'd fall in love with this if you appreciate the Magnetic Fields, Belle and Sebastian, or any kind of off-kilter, witty pop. According to Amazon he's a giant Top-40 star in Sweden. So how come we get stuck with Maroon 5? Wonders never cease.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
soothing, intimate, wacky, with a touch of melancholy
19 Oct 2004
By Anthony D'Auria
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
Lekman's intimate, gentle, stripped down Swedish pop reminds me of Kings of Convenience, though with brighter sound and often hilarious and wacky lyrics. His love songs (6, 7, 9, 10) are ironic and sensitive. His pleasant voice, reminiscent of Stephin Merritt dominates the songs, making his self-deprecating humor and political witticisms (3) really stand out.
Recommended Tracks: 1, 2, 3*, 5**, 6**, 9**
Recommended Tracks: 1, 2, 3*, 5**, 6**, 9**
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 13 reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
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