Record Review: Jens Lekman “Night Falls Over Kortedala”

October 17, 2007 by Matthew  Send to a Friend

We decided to start all our reviews with a quick blurb on the critic’s taste, like what else they are digging/not digging to see if you sync up. Here is Matt’s:

Lately I’ve been listening to a bunch of old Bruce Springsteen stuff, Born to Run, Born in the U.S.A., Darkness on the Edge of Town, etc. I’m also rather obsessed with the new Sunset Rubdown album, Random Spirit Lover, I think I’m developing a bit of a man-crush on Spencer Krug. And of course, I can’t stop listening to the new Radiohead, it’s as good as advertised.

Rating system
0 stars - Complete and utter garbage
1 star - Best just not to ever press play, save your ears for another day
2 stars - Not completely atrocious, but one you’ll probably forget about as soon as it’s over
3 stars - Good, but not great, likely with some excellent songs and others you’ll skip right through
4 stars - Damn good album, one you’ll definitely want to enjoy again and again
5 stars - Instant Classic

4.5 stars

When You’re So Silent Jens, a 2005 compilation of several of Jens Lekman’s singles and EPs from the preceding few years, first graced my ears I knew that I’d stumbled across something special. His Stephen Merritt-esque baritone, gorgeous melodies, catchy choruses and wistful lyrics transported me to a lo-fi Swedish indie rock fantasy land complete with flower-filled fields where I could take a picnic and smile about life’s hidden beauties. I listened to the album so many times that I figured I knew exactly what Jens Lekman was all about and what any future albums would be like, but Jens had something different in mind. He wasn’t satisfied with flower-filled fields, no, he wanted something grander, an album that has you floating through clouds on a crisp fall evening one second and at an awkward dinner with your lesbian crush’s parents the next. He wanted to make Night Falls Over Kortedala, and he succeeded in making a fantastic album.

For those familiar with Jens’ back catalog, the album opens on an almost-jarring note. The production on “And I Remember Every Kiss” is so much cleaner than anything from Lekman’s past, and it sounds as if he’s playing with a full orchestra behind him, as strings, horns and timpani drums erupt on the chorus while he croons “I could never kiss anyone.” There’s no guitar, bass, piano or typical rock instrumentation here, and it was frankly a bit worrisome, but my fears were quickly allayed as bongos and a funky bass riff joined the strings as the opening track fades into the spectacular “Sipping on the Sweet Nectar.”

The choice of instrumentation here is fascinating as Jens Lekman is probably best described as a singer/songwriter, and singer/songwriters are often thought of as inseparable from their guitars, but the guitar rarely emerges on Night Falls Over Kortedala. Instead Lekman chooses to use other instruments in its place, like a saxophone on the brilliantly bouncy single “Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo” or a stripped-down string section on the ridiculously poppy “The Opposite of Hallelujah.” One of the album’s best moments is when he brings in a barbershop quartet to open “Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig,” and then builds the rest of the song around the repeated “oooh, ba ba ba,” which fades in and out of the mix, even adding his own “oohs” in for good measure.

The best song on the album, “A Postcard to Nina” finds the singer in perhaps the most ridiculous situation ever put to record. He’s in Berlin on vacation and is asked to go to dinner with Nina, a lesbian who Jens has a huge crush on, and her parents to play the part of her boyfriend so that her conservative, Catholic father don’t shun her for sleeping with women. After being threatened with a lie-detector he ends up bonding with her dad and spends the rest of the song pining away for his lost lesbian love.

Jens ability to create moments like “A Postcard to Nina” is what really sets him apart from every one of his peers. Very few artists, if anyone, could’ve pulled off an album as grand in scale as Night Falls Over Kortedala and still come off sounding so humble as a character in his own songs, but Jens is an engaging of a narrator as there is. Occasionally you’ll find yourself in that flower-filled field while listening to this album, but Mr. Lekman wants to be sure that you experience all of the highs and lows of his fantasy land this time around.

WANT MORE:

see Jens Live next Thursday at the Cat with an afterparty at My Favorite Dress @ St. Ex
download some MP3s for free here
or simply

 Send to a Friend