Jens Lekman
Night Falls Over Kortedala (Secretly Canadian)
Reviewed by Audra Schroeder, Fri., Oct. 26, 2007
Jens Lekman
Night Falls Over Kortedala (Secretly Canadian)If 2005's Oh You're So Silent Jens sounded confused, Jens Lekman would like you to know he's grown as a person. Cue orchestral, late-Sixties Scott Walker opener "And I Remember Every Kiss," and listen to him croon, the Swede's rich verse about becoming a soldier ("You get a gun, and you name it after a girlfriend") delivered flat yet honest, like obvious hero Jonathan Richman. On his third LP, Lekman adds the banalities of his neighborhood, Kortedala, to more arranged sounds, hinging on a story-within-a-story: A kitchen accident with a knife turns into a disco love song ("Your Arms Around Me"); he pretends to be a gay friend's boyfriend to fool her father ("A Postcard to Nina"), as boppy horns and doo-waps punctuate the slapstick ("Hey, you, stop kicking my legs. I'm doing my best; can you pass the figs?"). He's still a little corny in parts, but it's outweighed by the genuinely sincere. (Jens Lekman courts the Parish Nov. 14.)
