Category: Jens Lekman

This is what this series is very much about:-

mp3 : Jens Lekman – A Pair of Cowboy Nights

In my next dream I want a pair of cowboy boots
The kind that walks the straightest and the most narrow routes

Anywhere but back to you

JC

THAT’S ALL VERY WELL JENS, BUT ITS FUCKING BALTIC OVER HERE….

This was from a newspaper report on 5 December 2010:-

After a week of the heaviest snow in Scotland for nearly 50 years, forecasters are warning that it could persist into the New Year. Although they are predicting less snow, there is no prospect of the mounds of white stuff melting away.

Temperatures are expected to remain mostly below zero for several weeks, with widespread danger from ice and freezing fog.

According to the Met Office, between 30 and 50 centimetres of snow has fallen in the last few days across Scotland. The last time there was anything comparable was in November 1965.

Temperatures towards the end of the week fell below minus 10 degrees centigrade in many places. The coldest place on Thursday night was Braemar, which registered minus 20.4 degrees, with minus 16.8 in Aberdeen, minus 15 in Edinburgh and minus 10 in Glasgow.

The coldest place all week was Altnaharra in Sutherland, which registered minus 21.1 degrees on Wednesday. The remote hamlet was besieged by journalists, who found local people shrugging their shoulders and getting on with it.

The Met Office is predicting the cold weather will continue for at least the next 30 days, with periods of snow, sleet, freezing rain and fog. “For the remainder of December and into the start of the New Year, temperatures look set to remain well below average for much of the UK, with often widespread frost and ice,” warns the official forecast.

And do you know something…..they got it right. Its been a nightmare. Maybe it will inspire someone over here to write something as wonderful as this chap from Gothenburg:-

mp3 : Jens Lekman – The Cold Swedish Winter

JC

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT

(Our Swedish Correspondent)

Jim,

Have had a couple of ICA’s in mind lately with Swedish bands (after all being the Swedish correspondent implies some duties…). One major issue is however language, with many of my fave Swedish bands performing in our native language and having lyrics as an important cornerstone they would make very little sense to most of the TVV readers. Listening to his latest record the other night I finally decided to do a Jens Lekman ICA, concentrating on his early recordings up to and including his commercial breakthrough, if you can talk about such with Jens – but at least he reached a wider indie audience with the truly wonderful Night Falls Over Kortedala album.

Jens started out as Rocky Dennis, based on the boy in the film “Mask”, but when Jens realized the character was based on a real person he dropped the alias and started to use his given name instead. Jens has always been very “local” in his lyrics, referencing places in his hometown, Gothenburg (Göteborg), and using his imaginary friend Lisa throughout his recordings.

Into This And That – a Jens Lekman ICA.

Side A.

1. Maple Leaves – First recorded as Rocky Dennis and then later re-released as Jens Lekman. Wonderful track with a typical Jens lyric, “I thought she said maple leaves”.

2. I Saw Her In The Anti-War Demonstration.

3. A Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill. Both from the “Julie” EP, where there is also a track called “Anorther Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill” – Hammer Hill being a direct translation of the suburban (problem) area Hammarkullen in Gothenburg. Jens grew up in one of the so called “problematic” suburbs, this showcases another side of the story – a happy party song among good friends, and then of course the second version is a sad, sad story… As reality is rarely just black or white.

4. Rocky Dennis’ Farewell Song (To The Blind Girl). From the Rocky Dennis In Heaven EP. There is of course also a “Jens Lekman’s Farewell Song To Rocky Dennis” on the EP, but this is the stronger one in my mind. Very sweet melody.

5. And I Remember Every Kiss. A stunning opener of the “Night Falls Over Kortedala” album, and a great closing song of this side. Grand music, sad lyrics and an old fashioned Volvo 240.

Side B.

1. Your Arms Around Me – When accidentally cutting your finger becomes a beautiful love song. Also from NFOK. Kortedala is by the way another not so fancy part of Gothenburg where Jens lived for some time.

2. You Are The Light (By Which I Travel Into This And That) – From Jens’ first album, When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog, a quirky love song with an upbeat melody.

3. Sipping On The Sweet Nectar – He can do songs to dance to as well! From NFOK, sweet as honey – or maybe sweet as nectar. There is a great club remix as well by Bogdan Irkük.

4. Someone To Share My Life With – From the first Jens Lekman EP, Maple Leaves, and a song very similar to Someone by Depeche Mode in many aspects. And this leads us nicely to the ending of this ICA

5. Kanske Är Jag Kär I Dig

It means Maybe I’m In Love With You. A truly wonderful love song from NFOK, which is very special on a personal level. Around the time NFOK was released I was going through a divorce, one day while driving to a conference playing the CD in my car I got a text from a woman I had met a couple of times through work. She was also going there and wondered if we would meet. This track was played on repeat after reading the message…(And yes, she is now Mrs.)

Bonus track: Lönnlöv – The Swedsih version of Maple Leaves (lönnlöv are maple leaves), where the misintepretation is “Hon sa allt var lönlöst, men jag tyckte hon sa lönnlöv” – which translates to the slightly more desperate ” She said all is meaningless, but I thought she said maple leaves”.

Ironically as I lived many years in the same city as Jens, I have seen him in town several times but never caught him playing live. A true shame actually, which I know JC can confirm. (JC adds….. indeed I can….he’s a truly wonderful live act and was very generous with his time after this gig last year).

Enjoy.

Martin

JC adds (again)…….this exceptional run of ICAs will continue into next week.  Three more ridiculously wonderful guest contributions – from Dirk, Craig McAllister, SWC and finally one from myself to round things off, wrapped around a piece of tinned fruit on Wednesday.

I’m actually off to Toronto for 8 days after tomorrow, so any daft errors in upcoming postings which are pointed out won’t be corrected immediately…shit quality control I know, but it’s what happens when costs are cut to the bone.

Gig #3 of 2017 was one that I was hugely anticipating for the simple fact that three previous efforts to catch Jens Lekman in Glasgow had ended in failure – at least twice as he’d played when I was away on holiday while the other time the show was sold out by the time I went to sort out tickets and I couldn’t be bothered trying on the night.

For those of you who don’t know, he’s a singer-songwriter from Sweden whose fourth LP, Life Will See You Now was released some six weeks ago.  He’s a fairly unique talent although in his own self-deprecating way he describes himself as a wedding-singer; but his body of work, which also consists of a number of EPs released in his native land before landing a worldwide deal with the American label Secret Canadian in 2004, has won him a decent sized following attracted by his ability to mix and match a wide range of styles and influences – I’ve seen comparisons to acts as diverse as Scott Walker, Jonathan Richman, David Byrne, Edwyn Collins, Belle & Sebastian, The Magnetic Field and Wham! (yes Wham!….and to be fair the boy does write some cheesy, danceable pop tunes alongside some achingly beautiful ballads).

Anyways….judging by reviews he had been wowing fans in North America this past few weeks and he was coming into this part of the world for gigs in Dublin, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow before an extensive tour of Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, France and Switzerland throughout April. But somewhere along the way he has picked up a virus that led to a curtailed show in Leeds and the cancellation of Manchester the night before Glasgow. I really feared I was going to miss out again…

The venue is St Luke’s, a fairly recently converted old church in the east end of the city just a few hundred yards from the iconic Barrowlands where an all-day ultra hard rock festival with nine bands on one stage (not all at the same time!!) was taking place. Twee v Death Metal on a Saturday night in Glasgow. You can’t beat it.

I was there with Aldo and we arrived in time to see support act The Dove & The Wolf, two females on guitar who delivered what proved to be an entire set of melancholy and sad sounding songs based on vocal harmonies. They did talk in between songs and, judging by their accents, we were trying to work out which part of America they were from. And then, as if reading our minds, they asked the audience to shout out the name of their home city with the promise of a free CD to the first correct answer.

Nobody guessed they were from Paris….and NOT Paris, Texas…albeit they spend much of their time in Philadelphia which perhaps explains the American twang to their spoken English.

Their guitar work was reminiscent at times of early 80s Cocteau Twins and they provided a genuinely moving aspect to the night when they introduced one of their songs that had been written as their response to the tragedy at the Bataclan in September 2015.

Jens Lekman and his all-female backing band took to the stage at 9pm. He looked a ghastly shade of white and he immediately sat down on a chair in the middle of the stage announcing that he was determined to play but it would need to be, on doctor’s orders, a shortened set with certain songs omitted as he was incapable of hitting any high notes.

I had a real sinking feeling, thinking it would be four or five songs and goodnight…just enough to prevent anyone asking for a refund of the £16 ticket (plus booking fee & postage!). As it turned out, he played for around 50 minutes, told a couple of funny anecdotes and while he was seated throughout, his band played with real gusto and energy as if determined to take everyone’s mind off things. The set was split roughly 50/50 between songs off new LP and some old favourites, some of which were specially re-arranged. There was also a wonderful one-song encore in which The Dove and The Wolf added their fine voices.

So did Jens cut the mustard? The honest answer is yes. Of course I’d have preferred to see him in peak health and delivering the full show but the truncated version was splendid in its own right with enough magical moments ti make it memorable. He’s coming back to the UK later in the year and myself and Aldo are seriously contemplating heading south to take one of them in.

I’ve every intention of a Jens Lekman ICA in the reasonably near future, but for now I’ll leave you with one of the upbeat numbers from the new LP – one that meshes a clever and witty lyric with the best 70s disco sounds such as McFadden & Whitehead or Earth, Wind & Fire and one of the old classics that was aired last night that on its own would have the gig worth attending.

JC