Jens Lekman

Secretly Canadian is throwing young Jens Lekman a coming-out party, and all your old friends are invited. Modern Lover Jonathan Richman will be there, strumming his acoustic in the corner for a huddled, hushed group of attentive coeds; Stephin Merritt too, feigning boredom and bitching about the dearth of cute boys. You'd heard Morrissey? Moz RSVP'd, but, then again, he usually does.

Here, on this proper debut that amounts to nothing less than a debutant ball, Lekman channels each in announcing his sizable presence to the music world outside of Stockholm: There's the boyish Richman on the opening track, "Tram #7 to Heaven," joyously counting his way up to the titular train ("Tram #3 has misery/ Tram #4 knocks at your door"), and again lamenting his unrequited love for a girl who made him chili on "The Cold Swedish Winter" ("I met her in a snowstorm/ I was outdoors plowing/ She just walked up to me and said/ 'Hey, boy, how's it going?'").

-- Noah Bonaparte

read the rest of this review at Neumu

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