Jens Lekman

Oh You're So Silent Jens

Oh You're So Silent Jens is a compilation of previously released albums by Jens Lekman, this era's answer to the previous generations' Stephen Merritt and Jonathan Richman. Lekman offers lyrics ripe with off-color humor and touching rhyme similar to Richman. Comparisons drawn to Merritt are a little more intertwined, as the track "Black Cab" sounds like it belongs off of Holiday or some other non-69 Love Songs Magnetic Fields oeuvre. Strings weave their way throughout Oh You're So Silent Jens in a way that is reminiscent to Andrew Bird.

More important than Lekman's influences is what he offers that others don't. This Swedish musician's songs are littered with his endearing accent (It's not that I can't stand to see you wit a'nudder man/I just don't want to see good love fall in to de wrong hands from “ "The Wrong Hands"). Even better, listening to what Lekman is actually saying in his songs makes the listener want to be his friend or casual acquaintance.

You might get a chance at this when he makes an appearance at the Paradise in Allston on October 29th. Bring wads of cash to pick up the many EPs he's got that are impossible to find stateside. Then get them autographed because he is going places, and for good reason.

Originally published in Spare Change News 8/23/07.