Jens Lekman / “An Argument with Myself” / Secretly Canadian

Jens Lekman, the king of melancholy dance pop, returns with an EP of, well, melancholy dance pop. It’s pretty hard not to like this. As usual, each song tells a quite literal story of things he’s feeling, doing - mostly centered around locations, changing locations, returning to locations. Songs don’t seem quite as adorable as previous installments, lyrics are spoken a bit faster which makes it harder to follow his intricate stories. Not a bad track, but I don’t really hear a favorite. The first is classic upbeat/loony Jens, but has two FCCs. After that, really any could be played on air. Maybe #4 was the most ear-catching?

FCC on #1 - “fuck you” twice. Release claims clean version is included, but I didn’t hear/see it...
Favorite tracks: 4?


1. 3:49 FCC “fuck you” twice- Uptempo, strummed clean electric guitars, synths, ooohs, makes you want to dance. Literally a spoken argument with himself at one point, so cute, so Jens.
2. 3:47 Midtempo, starts with violins, clapping, about trying to see Kirsten Dunst in his Swedish hometown, dealing with culture clashes.
3. 4:35 Slightly slower, violins, piano, midtempo beat. Kind of cheesy sounding, but sort of endearing too.
4. *2:42 Begins with horns, somewhat frenetic talk/singing, catchy horn riff and female singers come in. Strange mix, but the closest thing to his history of catchy cute hooks. I think.
5. 2:59 Downtempo, synthy syncopated melody in background. A little moody, sad. Flutes, oohs, generally nice.

Deniz Cebenoyan