Relentlessly adorable, devilishly witty and thick with affected poignancy, An Argument With Myself is the new EP from the precocious, loveable, Swedish indie mastermind, Jens Lekman.
The EP sees the forlorn, fickle song-man glossed in lavish and bombastic arrangements, diversely crooning off-kilter yacht rock tales, arguing with himself, trying to meet actress Kirsten Dunst, and crafting sensual tales of South American wine regions.
The EP’s bouncy, eponymous opener is a jangly serenade of self-reflection and frustration as Lekman drawls, “How long’s it been there two years? I bet if I smell it, it’ll smell like a cigarette / When was the last time you smoked a cigarette, and more importantly, who did you smoke it with?” with slick, rhythmic confidence.
“In Gothenburg we don’t have VIP lines / In Gothenburg we don’t make a fuss about who you are,”he sings on “Waiting for Kirsten”–an unrequited ukulele love ballad, backed with soaring, amorous strings about Lekman’s failed meeting with Kirsten Dunst—charming us all with his smirky, small-talk way; singing, it seems, with a wink.
Keeping in line with Lekman’s legacy of quirky, endearing soliloquy, An Argument With Myself, sees the sultry Swede adopting more fleshed out, orchestral arrangements. It also showcases his ear for complex melody and counterpoint with songs like “A Promise,” where shifting shades of sparseness enrobe Lekman’s sombre sympathetics, or “New Directions,” with its climbing glockenspiel, wandering bass and soaring voice harmonies, which slide in and around each other to be met by the literal fanfare of a trumpet duo.
An expert on analyzing the peculiar idiosyncrasies of life, Lekman has the rare talent of being able to—essentially—drunkenly ramble in the form of song, while remaining utterly poetic and sincere.
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