Searching through the now defunct jenslekman.com right before he pulled the plug on his self-constructed site, I stumbled across some old recordings posted by him a good 3 1/2 years ago right when he first toured the US in promotion of his debut 2004 LP When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog. Meant at the time as a tour-only EP, USA October 2005 shows the origins of one of the wittiest songwriters of our generation.
Instrumentally stripped down, this EP feels more like intimate home recordings that were never planned to see the light of day than a touring album. Accompanied by only a piano in the Nagisa Ni te cover song “Me on the Beach” (sung in what sounds like fluent Japanese) shows a more serious side of Jens that is mostly shrouded under dense layers of situational humor and irony in his present work.
“How Much You Mean to Me” – self described as “one of the most saddest and sincere songs I’ve ever written” — showcases Lekman’s storytelling ability that has been chiefly responsible for his rise in fame. Much in the same vein as the interlude in “Postcard to Nina”, Jens uses his soft and emotionally disconnected voice to convince us of his depression after a brush with love. Lines like “I’m alone now. I would be so afraid if someone put their arms around me” are more serious than the humorous “Nina” which makes for more of a connection of our own life experiences to Jens’ most likely fictional account.
A pleasant surprise from the EP is the Swedish version of “Maple Leaves” (or “Lönnlöv” in Swedish) – a song off of an earlier EP of the same name and a later compilation disk, Oh Your So Silent Jens. Contrary to the other recordings, Jens opts to only use his voice and a ukulele rather than a full on orchestra to churn out a much sweeter version of the song.
You can get a copy of the EP along with other older mp3s off of one of the most well run fan site I’ve seen. I haven’t had a chance to sift through any of the other stuff posted, but if it is good as this EP then I won’t wait for too long!
Jens Lekman // How Much You Mean to Me
Jens Lekman // Me On the Beach
Tags: Jens Lekman, mp3, USA October 2005
[...] Jens has posted a lot more free material since the last time I checked his site. The first track, which you can download below, is from a 2005 split 7” with friend [...]