Music Blogs

We here at Better Living Through Chemistry, er MP3, have a soft spot in our hearts for those grandiose musical personalities of the world. Scott Walker, Liberace, Cornelius, Andy Pratt, Erykah Badu, David Sylvain, Koop, Flavor Flav--all the truly talented nutjobs deserve serious props and lots of MP3 spillage ‘round here. Add Swedish pop star Jens Lekman to that wonder wall of talent and mental torchery.

Lekman is enjoying massive critical respect of late, The New York Times writing "Lekman is the kind of Swedish singer-songwriter who doesn't have to joke to be funny." I think that is praise. The always verbose Uncut awarded Lekman's second album, Oh You're So Silent, three stars, inking "there's nary a dull track here." Mojo did them one better: "When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog...exhibits a luscious Brill Building shine" and "there's little not to love about these bittersweet vignettes."

By turns melancholy and oddly uplifting, Lekman's third release Night Falls Over Kortedala posits him firmly in the upper atmosphere as a lover/exhibitor of grandiose pop that is oh so easy to get hooked on. Lekman often sings flat over his assemblage of acoustic guitar, computer drums, real strings and sampled keyboards, but it's his inner charm and obvious love for stylistic sources as diverse as Motown, Gordon Lightfoot, Tropicalia and bad bar bands, as heard in "Friday Night At The Drive In Bingo," that make him a Swede superstar.

Lekman's publicist wanted me to use "Bingo" as today's featured MP3, but I think that would give you the wrong idea about this uber talented sad sack. Wacky, over the top, and stumbling, "Bingo" is fun, for sure. Grab a beer and scope the babes at the bar. But other songs from Night Falls Over Kortdela expose the album's real beauty and Lekman's undeniable skill at songcraft.

Beginning with the gently urgent "Shirin." Call me a sap, but I love this song's lazy bossa nova feel, stirring strings and immaculately gorgeous melody. Similarly affecting, opener "And I Remember Every Kiss" is epic in its production grandeur, Lekman's stilted vocal delivery only adding to the song's tale of romantic failure accompanied by a stunning orchestral arrangement with grandiose, pounding tympani drums and brass adding to the heart pounding fireworks. "Sipping On The Sweet Nectar" is joyously silly, the best disco song never covered by the Captain and Tenille. "The Opposite Of Hallelujah" bounces over computer drums and children's toy piano, yet another song where Lekman manages to deliver great joy within a melancholic mood. It's simple, playful, and unforgettable. Finally--well, not finally, there are a lot more songs on this Oreo sweet album---but "A Postcard To Nina" hits me like the Intruder's "Cowboys To Girls." It's blue eyed Swede soul from a sad happy character.

Bald guy with microphone: English found sound sculptor Scanner (aka Robin Rimbaud) has been robbing the ether for years. Typically probing into people's homes and minds with his long range microphone then reconstructing the results with various electronics. Scanner has held serious concerts at serious London music halls. He's dished the dirt with all manner of similarly bent artists who receive much coverage in WIRE. Scanner's latest foray is a warm hearted tribute, of all things, to English film director Derek Jarman.

"This album is a collection of memories taking recordings from spaces that Jarman inhabited or experienced," Scanner writes, "from the walk to the sea's edge from his cottage in Dungeness through to the roar of London congestion around his Charing Cross flat I have attempted to create a fluid, elegiac sound portrait, a form of resonant landscape painting that weaves through recordings of Jarman's own voice."

The Garden Is Full Of Metal is this year's "Revolution #9," next year's Hymnen (props to late great sample master and German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen). Enjoy "Experience": it's a mind-blower.     

"Experience"