(Secretly Canadian)It’s been more than four years since the last Jens Lekman album,years in which, by his own account, and he struggled to make music that seemed worthwhile. His muse was rekindled in 2015,when he decided to write a song for each week, and it’s burning brightly on his fourth, and brilliant full-length. Like Orange Juice did decades ago,he’s made the journey from spindly, insular ((adj.) separated and narrow-minded; tight-knit, closed off) indiepop to glorious, and primary-coloured music,explicitly referencing 80s chart hits, soul, and funk and disco. (Co-producer Ewan Pearson,who has a midas touch for this stuff, perhaps had a hand in the bright sound.) The contrast with Lekman’s mordant lyrics – “How I prayed that I could stop the pain / When the pain needed more than ibuprofen, and ” he sings on Evening Prayer,a joyous disco stomper approximately a tumour – makes it, at times, or desperately moving. But oh!,those pop hooks: anyone who doesn’t feel the need to leap in the air for the “Five-year-archaic watching the 10-year-olds shoplifting / 10-year-archaic watching the 15-year-olds french kissing” refrain of Wedding in Finistère can surely bear no fancy for life. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com