Jens Lekman Mount Rushmore
I didn’t get any direct questions for the game, probably partly as I didn’t include a link (here you go), but when I replied to Ian’s Jens Lekman one saying that I would also include “Maple Leaves” as the absolute best but three different other choices, he asked what they were. So:
“Maple Leaves” - Everything Ian said (except that he is TOTALLY WRONG that the 7” mix is the better one, it doesn’t even start with the strings). The first Jens song that I ever heard, when a friend put it on a mix CD, and I was an instant convert.
“A Postcard to Nina” - A really funny song. Perfectly executed farce, with an exquisitely awkward escalation of worst-thing-that-could-happen details as his not-girlfriend’s dad puts on his album and then starts reading the booklet as he asks awkward questions. The sped up bits with parping brass are probably Jens’ best mid-song change ever. Then it turns into being funny and sweet. When Jens sings the line about sending out-of-office auto-replies it’s with such an amusing but genuine apologetic tone, and he makes singing the sign-off with his own name really endearing.
“It Was a Strange Time in My Life” - because it’s his best Belle & Sebastian/Morrissey combination, and because of “Most shy people I know are extremely boring/Either that or they are miserable from all the shit they’ve been storing”
“Sufrir” - This is kind of cheating since it is a Javiera Mena song. However, I still remember the first time I heard the album it’s from. Its confident disco pop was already sounding like a highlight, and then this familiar voice popped up alongside her… wait, is that…? And then the spoken bit that removed any doubt that it was him, out of place and sounding like he couldn’t believe his luck at being there. I am grinning just thinking about it.
