Jens Lekman - An Argument With Myself

It may only be a 5-track EP but it’s been 4 years coming so we’ll take anything we can get from Mr Lekman, the mercurial and elusive Swede that he is. Musically this sounds pretty similar to his last record, Night Falls Over Kortedala: a wide-ranging set of instrumentation garnishing simple and charming pop songs. There are some iffy moments, New Directions so very nearly manages to make the unlikely fusion of Beatles-style trumpets with samba drumming an effective backdrop to a song about optimal route-planning whilst So This Guy At My Office is a bit too light, even for Lekman’s take. But that’s all a side issue compared to the first couple of tracks (and in particular, Waiting for Kirsten, an odd ode to Kirsten Dunst and her visit to Stockholm) which are the most amusing he’s ever recorded. For anyone else that might not be a good thing… for Jens Lekman, the master of the wry, comical story told in a charming and melodic way, it’s a great thing.