Jens Lekman- Night Falls Over Kortedala

soz, to clear up, i meant this: http://www.clipartof.com/images/xsmall/2214.gif

It's good but no where near as good as you made it out to be (and using the same riff as John Mayer = major ;_;)...FS/LS still in the lead.

I get that he's like a twee ponce or whatever, but I still really hate his vocals on this album. He's either trying to be Moz or Merritt way too hard.

It's jus not for me i guess.

listening to john mayer= major ;_;, but whatever.

are we comparing every album to FS/LS now? why don't we start a thread called "Tape Store TS: FutureSex/LoveSounds vs. Album X"? every good song on that album is a single, anyway.

jens has always been pretty love/hate. you have to have a pretty high tolerance for woe is me stuff and really self-referential lyrics and anecdotal songs.

that being said, (as i've already stated) i find the arrangements on the album to be nearly perfect for a modern classic pop album. but then again, i do also love jens as a songwriter/lyricist.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/helgap.gif
Jens Lekman- Night Falls Over Kortedala
this leaked a few days ago. best pop album of the past 2-3 years, i think. a totally immersible album with pristine production. everything from the pianos, horns, keys, drums, etc. sounds absolutely perfect and it all gets plenty of room to breathe

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/hn.gif
but then again, i do also love jens as a songwriter/lyricist. the man is a virtuoso in every sense of the word.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/helga.gif
are we comparing every album to FS/LS now? why don't we start a thread called "Tape Store TS: FutureSex/LoveSounds vs. Album X"? every good song on that album is a single, anyway.

A+++++++++++++++++++

http://www.geocities.com/kirstz22/hheart.gif
!!!

(it better be this good, or else I'll be very sad...I love Jens)

-- Tape Store, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 1:18 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.geocities.com/kirstz22/cecil.gif
It's good but no where near as good as you made it out to be (and using the same riff as John Mayer = major ;_;)...FS/LS still in the lead.

-- Tape Store, Friday, August 17, 2007 3:59 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.gay.hr/web/smilies/goal.gif

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j171/mdanielwalter/jens3thm.jpg

it's just so cute! and the production on "kanske ar jag kar i dig" is fucking beautiful!

"Your Arms Around Me" is gorgeous, as is the rest.

Great record. Sinking in day by day.

1/4 great, 3/4 filler.

I'm liking his cover of Arthur Russell's "A Little Lost"

1/4 great, 3/4 filler.

Which 1/4?

this album is a dissapointment. too flowery. just like the new caribou. i prefer the original 'a little lost' but the youtube video for it is excellent.

the first track is totally ripping off scott walker's montague terrace (in blue). enough said

1/4 great, 3/4 filler

I prefer 12/8

i think it's more barry manilow than scott walker. i quite like it.

<i>I prefer 12/8</i>

Carter Beauford on the drums! Carter Beauford on the drums!

this album is a dissapointment. too flowery

Isn't this like accusing Morrissey of being too morose?

after listening to the first 3 songs I think this album is a little too fruity. the new caribou wasn't that great either.

-- CaptainLorax, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 7:25 PM (3 weeks ago)

this album is a dissapointment. too flowery. just like the new caribou. i prefer the original 'a little lost' but the youtube video for it is excellent.

-- CaptainLorax, Sunday, September 9, 2007 7:03 AM (Yesterday)

Thank you for your valuable input, Captain Redundant.

From the Caribou-Andorra thread:
After the first 1 & 1/2 listens to Andorra, I don't like this album at all. Too flowery for me and I like belle and sebastian.
This reminds me of what happened to the latest jens lekman album.

-- CaptainLorax, Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:30 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

Hahaha

can lorax start a blog where he rates everything in terms of floweriness?

The great 1/4 is, froom what I recall, "Shirin", "Drive-In Bingo" and "Postcard to Nina".

ok, i don't mind this now.

Can't remember what its called but the one that sounds like the Smiths with disco strings is kick-ass

I really enjoyed Jens' performance at Pitchfork two years ago, but neither of his albums really clicked with me. This, however, is pretty fantastic.

If he's going to croon, he'd better be a good singer. And he's not. Sorry, but if you're going to do this kind of stuff, you have to have chops.

I was disappointed at first because the lyrics felt clunkier and less clever than in the past. However, it's really grown on me. Highlights: "Kanske Är Jag Kär I Dig," "Shirin," "Opposite of Hallelujah" and "A Postcard to Nina" (despite being the clunkiest of the clunky lyrics).

Wait, why am I posting on ILM?

rich smorg offtm.

If this guy gets any more Charlie Brown, his next album is going to be about trying to kick a football.

High point of this = getting emails from Nina's father

I'm giving this another try, because I know what he's trying to do. But so far I can't help but compare it, unfavorably, to Scott Walker and any number of better-produced 60's groups. (Yeah, I keep hearing cheesy midi strings ...or something)

Charlie Brown is still Charlie Brownier, though. He's the Charlie Browniest.

First time I played this two months ago I thought it was garbage. I've played it constantly in the last two weeks. I'll try to go back to the earlier stuff but I don't get the sense I really missed anything this album doesn't deliver. Musically alone, there are some incredible moments on this, particularly "A Postcard to Nina" and the glorious last two minutes of "Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig"--the way the horns build and splash to the shore, as well as that a cappella doo-wop refrain, renders me gaga. I also like the lyrics a lot, probably for similarly geeky reasons.

older stuff is a little more bedroom-y and based way more on guitar than his newer songs. but if you're digging the real orchestral feel of night falls, there are some songs on the compilation (you're so silent jens) that kind of indulge his more schmaltzy side, but they sound kind of canned (i'm assuming bcuz of budget reasons) (i'm talking about a song like "maple leaves" which is still beautiful) compared to the way a lot of the sounds on night falls really blossom.

really otm about "a postcard to nina" and "kanske", which are probably my two fav songs on the album. i would throw "friday night at the drive in bingo" in there too in terms of those three having a looser, more clattering feel. he (intentionally, i'm sure) nearly stumbles over the rapid end of "friday night" like he does on "a postcard to nina".

I'm also liking his lyrical persona a lot more than I expected to. "Kanske" is a good example--the way the first verse seems daft and then he turns the corner and explains it away as date jitters. That kind of thing can be really mawkish (and my sense that Lenkman did that was a lot of why I avoided him before), but his matter-of-factness helps its charm enormously. (Ditto his semi-deadpan in "Nina": "Oh! God! Jesus Christ!"

it's pretty plainly obvious why ppl are turned off by his lyrics, but there's a lot of understood humor in his whole persona that really draws me in (maybe thats just something i identify with), be it with just a lyric like "the dreamer just make believe/ but i thought she said maple leaves" or a whole verse like "i picked up a seashell/l to illustrate my homelessness/ but a crab crawled out of it/ making it useless". he very clearly magnifies mini-heartbreaks and mini-triumphs, but shrugs both off with a kind of aw-shucksness that i think is pretty relatable.

Going to see this fella tonight in Kilburn.

I saved "The Opposite of Hallelujah" and a couple of others, but his voice isn't up to his melodies.

Techically, I agree with Alfred, but I've grew to adore the voice, even at its most foghorny (like the opening cut); I prefer him as a singer to Merritt (an obvious forebear tonally), or at least on this album. I'm surprised how much I really like it; it's jumped onto my Top 10 list, though I may change its position again before my vote goes in.

Agreed that his voice isn't all that, but it's not terrible, and he has a total mastery of what he's trying to do with his songs, structurally, the stories he wants to tell.

I wasn't a huge fan before this album, but "night falls" is top class.

I have totally mixed feelings about stuff like this. I've never heard earlier Jens and while he's definitely doing some good stuff I don't know how long this record will stay with me. He's clearly at his best when he's telling a story so the middle portion of the record ("eternity," "if I could cry," that stuff) is a complete blur. I'm a bit surprised to see some praise on this thread for the production, which to me is totally forgettable. He's getting by on lyrics and melodies (I enjoy his voice too, I must admit). Tunes like "Nina" and "Drive-in Bingo" will be hard to forget, but then I think things like "When the hell was the last time I listened to 69 Love Songs," or for that matter any such exercise in classicism? It's such a fleeting pleasure for me.

Not sure there's anything wrong with a fleeting pleasure. there will be more than enough music next year. (not an entirely facetious point either. I really try not to penalize records that I suspect won't age well, because who knows?)

also, i should have said "(the tracks i've heard from) night falls (are) top class." because i really only have about 6 of them.

"the cherry trees in blossom" is maybe the best thing here, easily the best version of that song & the new lyrics posing it as a sequel to the original "julie" are a nice touch

https://boomkat.com/products/the-linden-trees-are-still-in-blossom

reworked Night Falls Over Kortedala out in two weeks too!

it has 6 tracks added on the end:
Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death - Scout Niblett cover for a compilation
Our Last Swim in the Ocean - demo included on pre-order bonus EP Kalendervägen 113.D
A Little Lost - Arthur Russell cover for a compilation
Radio NRJ - B-side to "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo"
The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom - probably a sequel track like "The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom" but I don't think there's an obvious lyrical link
When I'm Swimming - no idea what this is either

Finally a streamable version of “I saw her in the anti war demonstration” I love that song, can’t really hear a difference on this version and the original one, but it’s been years since I last heard it.

No idea why he didn’t become one of the most important and popular figures in indie pop/rock. There’s so many brilliant songs in here.

"i saw her in the anti-war demonstration" is one that i'm not sure has been changed or re-recorded at all

it seems like he probably was pretty well-positioned to reach a higher level of success after night falls over kortedala but that didn't eventuate due to him taking 5 years to release i know what love isn't, which got a relatively underwhelming reception. he's also just been not very prolific in terms of actual albums since nfok. his output is a bit higher if you look at all the other weird little project he's done like postcards, but it's still not that substantial.

& he still puts out a bunch of stuff in weird ways that ensures that no one except the true heads ever hear it. looking at his website just now i found this wonderful 8 minute track he put out in 2019 exclusively as an mp3 download there.

http://jenslekman.com/IWantToBeInvaded.html

there's all sorts of other stuff... "wwjd" and "i remember" which were exclusive to a mix he made on soundcloud... he really needs to put out a rarities comp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyQIen0MRSU

still love "wwjd"

probably prefer the old “maple leaves,” but i kinda like how the new version removes a lot of the things that stamp it firmly in 2004, including that breakbeat and the choral samples

"i want to be invaded" is really so good how does he let something like that just be a throwaway on his website!

guh these self-covers/remakes are SO disappointingly sweet
reminds me of why i haven't been much interested in lekman's music in the past decade

too much light and glint and prettiness, ugh - the special of the old stuff was partly the dust and grit

this is on u.s. spotify now too

i'm just starting to listen to it but i'm inclined to agree with sean gramophone. i lost interest with jens bc his songs got so sappy and produced and arranged.

i don't hate this new maple leaves but it really feels like a cover, it's so reverential and slow

https://www.stereogum.com/2184655/jens-lekman-re-recording-classic-albums/interviews/qa/

interview here, he confirms nfok was indeed taken down due to legal issues with samples. also has two new albums in progress and one will be finished 'soon by his standards' so hopefully in the next year or so...?

Gotta agree with sean, I thought most of these sounded “too clean”. They’re still awesome songs but they sound even amateurish with this antiseptic treatment.

“I saw her in the antiwar demonstration” sounded pretty good to me, but maybe that one didn’t get changed? The last part did sounded different to my ears, but again it’s been awhile since I played the original songs.

Ok just compared it to the original version from a yt video from 4 years ago and it’s definitely the old version. That’s why that one sounded particularly good to my ears.

the linden trees are still in blossom is more like what i expected from this project, still very much the original album just a lot of the samples have been replaced with new overdubs. some stuff doesn't quite work or he wasn't able to recreate it properly, like the "sipping on the sweet nectar" instrumental break. biggest change is "kanske ar jag kar i dig" which has a new extended intro

obviously inferior to the original but a suitable replacement at least, works better than the more inconsistent approach of the cherry trees.

night falls over kortedala really is probably the absolute best indie pop album there is though

new fully-arranged version of "our last swim in the ocean" is lovely, it's the most essential from the bonus tracks. "when i'm swimming" was previously unreleased in any form as far as i know and it's quite nice too.

"the linden trees are still in blossom" is a "postcard to nina" sequel but unlike the "julie" sequel the new arrangement isn't revelatory

would have been nice to include some more of his other rarities from the era like the "opposite of hallejulah" b-sides

what is it with the samples suddenly? is anything else that has flown under the radar this long getting busted now?

i have no idea how he got away with it on this album for this long, but he did claim to have cleared some of the samples on it originally and that the rest were just recreations with session musicians (that part was obviously a lie)

but judging by what's been changed here he sure sampled a ton of uncleared stuff, much more than you can find listed on whosampled or anything

also not sure how he hasn't run into trouble over when i said i wanted to be your dog at all either, he was asked about that in a recent interview and said he couldn't answer

creative sentencing. he's agreed to be the rightsholders' dog.

just heard the new "Black Cab" and sorry guys, it sounds like it's for a detergent commercial now :/ (people who are like what's wrong w that shuuuut up)

Ew! Still cute but definitely worse

saw him last night in williamsburg. beautiful show. performed with a youth orchestra and created some beautiful arrangements of his classics. the stage banter was very funny. for the encore, he brought out the tracks for some of his more danceable songs, and while i’m happy he wasn’t using them for the whole show, it worked at the end.

the crowd was super super polite, for the most part. i was singing along a bit til i felt embarrassed cause i was the only one lol

He's apparently playing everywhere with youth orchestras on this tour.

Pretty bummed out about this new "Black Cab"

the old one is still around...

i love the new “black cab.” i love the clean guitar lines and the depth of his voice, texturally it feels new in a way that really works for me

yep, still hate nu-"Black Cab"

oh no goddamn