Jens Lekman sounds a bit like Morrissey if he wrote songs for 1970's educational videos. Jens is a crooner who writes exceptionally honest and completely schmaltzy lyrics. Here is "Sipping on the Sweet Nectar" for Monday's Your Personal Soundtrack. A great soundtrack for fall. Pay attention to the amazingly evocative lyrics.

Jens released a new album last week called "Night Falls Over Kortedala", which is jam packed full of catchy, awesome tunes.
--Chris
http://weeklygeekshow.com/2007/10/your_personal_soundtrack_jens.php

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Product Description

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.

Track Listing

1. And I Remember Every Kiss
2. Sipping On The Sweet Nectar
3. Opposite Of Hallelujah, The
4. Postcard To Nina, A
5. Into Eternity
6. I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You
7. If I Could Cry (It Would Feel Like This)
8. Your Arms Around Me
9. Shirin
10. It Was A Strange Time In My Life
11. Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig
12. Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32837 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-09
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
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