He's Worth 900 Kronor

Jens Lekman, not to be confused with other bandaged artists, is one of the coolest people in music today. The Swede ties together strings, drums, handclaps, horns, and just about every other kind of sample you can imagine with his syrupy voice and striking pop sensibility. Baroque, theatrical pop reminiscent of Stephin Merritt, but pulled off with even greater bombast and style. Jens is like Stephin's less bitter, more goofy, less gay little brother.

Lately, I've been exploring the young Swede's back catalogue, and it's not quite as sparse as I expected. His debut album only came out last year, but was the fruitation of 4 years of songwriting. The album did decently among most major critics, but I still think of it as the lost gem of 2004. Maybe "lost" is stretching it, but it's definately one of the best offerings of a pretty dreck year. Either way, Lekman is one of the only new artists in 2004 that really got my blood pumping about music. Except for maybe these guys.

But back to the back catalogue. His various EPs contain some fantastic b-sides that rank among his best work, especially "Black Cab" from the Maple Leaves EP, "I Saw Her at the Anti-War Demonstration" from the You Are a Light EP, and "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill" from the Julie EP, the latter of which "is a romantiziced look-back on Jens´young life in the Göteborgian suburbs." It's summery and sublime.

Among his numerous lost songs, I stumbled across his CD-R EP I Killed A Party Again. Limited to only 100 copies, it's explained by Jens as, "drunken sad teenage confessions, words of wisdom. all caught on my little dictaphone when i was 15. plus a couple of songs on these topics. only for sale at shows."

How does it sound? Well, you can see how 15 year-old Jens grew up, and it's really interesting to get a glimpse of his shiny studio personality fooling with lo-fi samples, acoustic guitars, and field recordings. The melodies are fantastic, and the teenage lyrics memorable ("I remember punk rock chicks with orange hair" from "REC (at Saltholmen)").

Alright, alright, I would not tease. For the uninitiated:

"A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill"
Jens' Little Journal
"You Are A Light" Video

And a special treat:

I Killed A Party Again EP

And one last thing:

"I Don't Know if She's Worth 900 Kronor" from his split with El Perro Del Mar