he is doing some release a song-a-week project this year I think?? anyone keeping up w/ that?
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
i have, both songs that have come out so far have been very entertaining and enjoyable
― j. winters (josh), Wednesday, 14 January 2015 20:06 (nine years ago) link
know nothing of song a week project. this album is gorgeous though.
― contenderizer, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 20:29 (nine years ago) link
what's broken can always be fixed / what's fixed will always be broken
― Treeship, Thursday, 15 January 2015 02:18 (nine years ago) link
there's definitely a magnetic fields or cole porter element to the light verse of the lyrics, which can go from whimsical to arresting at the turn of a phrase. i wish more songwriters could do this effectively.
― Treeship, Thursday, 15 January 2015 02:20 (nine years ago) link
The way he sings that line breaks my heart. Just reading the lyrics make me want to put it on repeat for the rest of the night.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 15 January 2015 02:25 (nine years ago) link
aw young earnest j0rdan
― mookieproof, Thursday, 15 January 2015 02:30 (nine years ago) link
I like a lot more of this album than I remembered, also I am in a more appropriate headspace for Jens these days. still can't get past the intro of "it was a strange time in my life" though
― Simon H., Thursday, 15 January 2015 06:10 (nine years ago) link
I was listening to some early Scott Walker the other day and it reminded me of the lead track on this.
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Thursday, 15 January 2015 16:54 (nine years ago) link
reminder abt all these, i havent kept up but dipped in and out & listening to some now
https://soundcloud.com/jens-lekman
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 17 December 2015 03:14 (eight years ago) link
.@JensLekman's ‘Night Falls Over Kortedala’ is leaving this life and heading into eternity. Purchase the record, download the digital album, & stream it for the last time by March 21stSharing your condolences in the YouTube chat on March 21st at 11am EST pic.twitter.com/jQNraLtkZ1— Secretly Canadian (@secretlycndian) March 15, 2022
what??? did he finally get sued over a sample or something because removing the album from sale completely is bizarre & extreme without any explanation
― ufo, Wednesday, 16 March 2022 12:56 (two years ago) link
And from streaming too! This is really bizarre.
The really short, less than a week, notice makes me think it is sample based, in reaction to a threatened lawsuit or cease and desist, or something.
Great album though, a shame to see it lost to history.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 16 March 2022 13:48 (two years ago) link
Huh...if it's a sample, why not just remove that one track? Unless it says a "that compromises the integrity of the album, fuck it, take the whole thing down" situation.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 16 March 2022 14:44 (two years ago) link
I have a complicated relationship to the past. Everyone who writes and has had some form of success does. When my album Oh You’re So Silent Jens was taken down ten years ago due to sample issues, I almost felt a relief. The past had become too heavy. It's hard to explain but it used to bother me when someone said they liked something I’d done in the past. It was like... Imagine you’re 40, like me, and someone said ”I saw a photo of you when you were 21, you looked really good back then”. That's a nice thing to say but it can also unintentionally translate to ”you don’t look that good anymore”. And it feels the same way with a song, especially if you’re still trying to write new songs. So the album was gone and I thought that would make me feel better but the effect was much more extreme than I thought. Because of streaming and the way we've been listening to music the last ten years it was like the album had never existed. For any new listener that album is not even a gap in the record collection. It has no absence, there's no void, unless you know exactly where it was supposed to have been. And over time these old songs have become like new songs. Several times after playing Black Cab live, a young person has come up and said ”I liked that new song you played called Black Cab, when is that coming out?”.So during this pandemic I worked on restoring a lot of my old recordings from this era to be able to re-release them. Some songs had to be re-recorded from scratch as I’d recorded over the original tapes. Others could be remixed or left as they were. Unreleased demos were dug up and finished. If I was Bartlebooth I guess I would be in the jigsaw puzzle phase. It’s been fascinating, like I’ve had a compassionate dialogue between my current self and my 21 year old self. I think I look a lot better today than when I was 21 but I could write some pretty good tunes back then. It’s made me like myself more. It’s made me understand where I am. To know where you are you need to know where you came from.Sometimes I’ve fantasized about including a clause in my will about having all traces of myself erased once I’m dead. Placing my songs in a detergent solution and leaving nothing but white sheets behind. But that’s nonsense, I know. Pure narcissism in disguise. What I leave to the world belongs to the world. I donate it to you like I donate my body to science. I will from now on carry a donor card in my wallet that says ”After my death - any song I’ve ever written and anything I’ve ever posted on my blog - may be used for the benefit of others. Take this old flesh, learn something from it. Carve in it. Tear it to pieces. Delete it if you want or frame it in a museum. Read my growth rings like a tree, my musical calcifications. Laugh with me and laugh at me. I was a human. No more, no less."
https://www.jenslekman.com/records/smalltalk.htm
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 16 March 2022 14:47 (two years ago) link
Huh. Not going to begrudge him his wishes, but I wish his new version could coexist with the original, not replace it.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 16 March 2022 14:54 (two years ago) link
Night Falls Over Kortedala (Taylor's Version)
― Murgatroid, Wednesday, 16 March 2022 19:00 (two years ago) link
there's a big difference between re-recording & re-releasing oh you're so silent jens, which was already unavailable, and removing night falls over kortedala from sale & streaming to do the same (if that is indeed what's happening, there's no confirmation there)
― ufo, Wednesday, 16 March 2022 19:51 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I missed that he was talking about re-recording Silent there. Maybe this is a hint that he is planning to do the same for Night Falls?
I honestly hadn't realized Silent was gone either though.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 16 March 2022 20:00 (two years ago) link
looking forward to the newly finished unreleased demos from the vault though
but it's a bit disappointing because this likely means there's not anything properly new on the way anytime soon and he works at such a glacial pace
― ufo, Wednesday, 16 March 2022 21:05 (two years ago) link
I've certainly noticed the absence of Silent from streaming because every year or so I want to foist "Maple Leaves" on people. (Not sure how much mileage I'd get out of a non-infringing rearrangement of that sampletastic thing, come to think of it. Maybe I'll find out.)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Thursday, 17 March 2022 12:51 (two years ago) link
god i love this album. spun it for the first time in a while last night and had somehow forgotten how big the backbeat was on some of these tracks–"danceable" isn't the first word i think of when i think of jens, but it certainly fits here, especially on some of those tracks on the album's second half.
love the way he plays with tempo on the sped-up sections of "hallelujah" and "drive-in bingo" (which has always been my personal favorite).
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Monday, 21 March 2022 15:14 (two years ago) link
secretly is streaming the album live right now (for the last time????): youtube.com/watch?v=jtHvuY-wXys
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Monday, 21 March 2022 15:15 (two years ago) link
Guess I should have taken this seriously and tried to buy an LP. I see they're all sold out and the only one for sale on discogs is $275? It's still on spotify but I'm assuming that won't last long.
― Indexed, Monday, 21 March 2022 19:02 (two years ago) link
Anyone selling on discogs right now is specifically trying to profit off of this news.
― Evan, Monday, 21 March 2022 19:17 (two years ago) link
btw night falls over kortedala still lives online in unlisted form at that link i shared above (until they wise up and take it down)
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Monday, 21 March 2022 20:42 (two years ago) link
Been removed from his Bandcamp page but still shows as a purchase in my app/feed, so there's that...
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 22 March 2022 22:04 (two years ago) link
When I saw this news I thought “good thing I got it on vinyl” but I was wrong! I was thinking of the compilation (which I adore)
― flow, my crimson tears (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 01:52 (two years ago) link
I love him for the casual Life a Users Manual reference.
― Tim, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 15:47 (two years ago) link
wait is he really re-recording oh you're so silent jens...
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 23 March 2022 22:09 (two years ago) link
it's made pretty clear in his blog post linked above, says he wants to re-release it but has to avoid the sample issues that have kept it unavailable for the past decade & has recorded over some of the original tapes so some of it needs to be re-recorded from scratch
― ufo, Thursday, 24 March 2022 00:20 (two years ago) link
I was under the impression that Jens had already re-recorded various samples after their initial release... it could be my imagination but I thought that "Black Cab" in its original pre-Oh You're So Silent Jens form had a full-tilt Left Banke sample
I wish he could just get those samples cleared! The re-interpretative quality of those early songs was so much a part of the enjoyment
― flow, my crimson tears (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 24 March 2022 18:27 (two years ago) link
you're not wrong about "black cab" and i think "maple leaves," both of which had a few alternate versions with slightly-altered instrumentals
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Thursday, 24 March 2022 19:06 (two years ago) link
there were two different versions of "maple leaves" on oh you're so silent jens with some slightly different samples iirc, not sure if there were any others out there
i think the left banke sample is still there in the version of "black cab" on the album too
no idea which samples were at fault for the album getting taken down either
― ufo, Thursday, 24 March 2022 23:26 (two years ago) link
^ not "Oh You're So Silent Jens", I don't even think it's harpsichord on the album, sounds like a mandolin or something. What a perfect song
― flow, my crimson tears (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 25 March 2022 15:29 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PojymCxpb4
ah here's the version without the sample
― ufo, Friday, 25 March 2022 21:33 (two years ago) link
"Black Cab" is a magical song
― flow, my crimson tears (flamboyant goon tie included), Saturday, 26 March 2022 01:54 (two years ago) link
Black Cab might be my favorite song. Thank god it is on youtube.
I really am saddened by the removal of Night Falls.
― treeship., Sunday, 27 March 2022 20:11 (two years ago) link
this must be what the opposite of hallelujah feels like
― maf you one two (maffew12), Sunday, 27 March 2022 21:45 (two years ago) link
I wasn't imagining it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpgkG4TIyvE
GOD this song
― flow, my crimson tears (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 28 March 2022 01:15 (two years ago) link
well maybe i am, maybe i am
― treeship., Monday, 28 March 2022 01:25 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roMN1t4amXY
this is a charming performance of the opposite of hallelujah to hold people over until night falls is available again
― treeship., Monday, 28 March 2022 01:27 (two years ago) link
the album still lives online at this unlisted link! (for now)
youtube.com/watch?v=jtHvuY-wXys
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Monday, 28 March 2022 03:57 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMAml2wdwQ4sweetsurprised i couldn't find more footage of you together. Great memories of the Toronto Great Hall show.
― maf you one two (maffew12), Monday, 28 March 2022 12:52 (two years ago) link
he’s just posted ‘maple leaves - out tomorrow’ on his ig story
― just sayin, Tuesday, 26 April 2022 21:46 (two years ago) link
https://open.spotify.com/album/44Wa9N8w6M2VFRddtbnbX3
not just maple leaves, the entire oh you're so silent jens remake has gotten a surprise release!
now titled the cherry trees are still in blossom, it adds some interludes, a recording of "eureka" which looks to be a track he played live but never released, a new version of "julie" titled "the cherry trees are still in blossom", and an acoustic version of black cab, but removes the second version of "maple leaves"
― ufo, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 01:48 (two years ago) link
hmm really do not know how to feel about the new "maple leaves", he's reworked it as an acoustic ballad with strings. it's gorgeous but as a replacement for the original and the only version widely available, it's totally disappointing. if this was a bonus track i'd love it but where's a version that's anything like the original! where are those propulsive drums!
― ufo, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 01:59 (two years ago) link
new "black cab" is wonderful though! slightly different but totally does it justice
― ufo, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 02:10 (two years ago) link
oh crazy! i just posted the julie video on another thread, didnt realise the whole album was out. listening now...
― just sayin, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 02:42 (two years ago) link
hmm showing up as all grayed-out tracks for me. Are you all in europe?
― na (NA), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 02:45 (two years ago) link
australia
― just sayin, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 02:47 (two years ago) link