Lekman, Jens: The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom (Vinyl 2xLP)

All my friends were playing in these bass-guitar-drum bands,” speaks Jens Lekman, casting his mind back over twenty years to his first rudimentary experiments with sampling using his father’s old cassette recorder, and an instinct to create music that would set him far apart from his Swedish pop peers. “I’m going to sound like Scott Walker. But I’m going to do it in my bedroom.”

Works of sweeping, maximalist, orchestral wonder sung in a sumptuous tenor, weaving lifts from obscure fleamarket vinyl records with by turns burningly romantic and mordantly funny true-life tales from the sleepy-shadowy suburbs of Gothenburg – Lekman’s early songs come from a different time, a different place. An era when the internet was young, limitless and disruptive, sample culture was turning music inside out, and anything felt possible.

After initially finding an audience through peer-to-peer file sharing sites, Lekman signed to Secretly Canadian Records in 2003, and went on to release a slew of cherished material, including three cult limited-edition EPs – Maple Leaves, Rocky Dennis and Julie – later collected on the 2005 compilation album Oh You’re So Silent Jens. His DIY fantasias found their fullest and most celebrated form in 2007 on his second album proper, the exquisite Night Falls Over Kortedala – Lekman’s self-professed “dream record”. It went to number one in Sweden and was later hailed as one of the 200 best albums of the 2000s by Pitchfork, as well as one of the top 100 albums of the 21st century so far by The Guardian.

1. Nov. 27, 2002
2. At The Dept. Of Forgotten Songs
3. Maple Leaves
4. Sky Phenomenon
5. Pocketful Of Money
6. Black Cab
7. Someone To Share My Life With
8. Dec. 19, 2002
9. Rocky Dennis Farewell Song To The Blind Girl
10. Rocky Dennis In Heaven
11. Jens Lekman's Farewell Song To Rocky Dennis
12. Julie
13. April 23, 2003
14. I Saw Her In The Anti-War Demonstration
15. A Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill
16. A Man Walks Into A Bar
17. Another Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill
18. F-Word
19. The Wrong Hands
20. June 1, 2003
21. Eureka
22. The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom
23. Black Cab (Acoustic Version)