Album Review: Night Falls Over Kortedala
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Rating: (at the risk of losing all my street cred) 8.5
I like to consider myself an equal opportunity music aficionado. There were times in my ignorant youth that, when asked, I would declare my love for "everything pretty much..except rap music. and country." It was later in life, when I discovered the joys of acquired taste, that I forced myself to sit down and actually digest music from these respective categories. I soon found that once you wipe away the contemporary radio-swill, there will always be music that is as valid in it's existence as it is enjoyable.At least...that's what I've been telling myself all this time. Sure, I had came to terms with Country and Rap...then eventually Avant Garde, Noise Rock, Metal, Classical, you name it (the weirder the better) - I was convinced that there wasn't a category of sound that I couldn't conquer, add to the playlist, and hold aloft like a trophy declaring my expansive and superior taste in music.I've been sitting pretty smug on my pedestal for some time now... feeling like I'm part of some elite club that can hate popular music (simply for it's popularity) but can listen with appreciation to someone scratching on a log for 35 minutes while a woman cries in the background. It's art! I'm enlightened! Huzzah!Who would have thought that some skinny goofball of a kid from Sweden would come and knock me right off that pedestal and onto my ass.
His name is Jens Lekman. I became interested mostly over the incredible reviews being hurled his way. 4 stars there, 9.0 there, 5 out of 5 clipart thumbs-up. So off I went to see what the fuss was about...and what I heard truly floored and confused me... and made me recoil in horror.I love all forms of music right? No genre is safe?"Oh yeah smart guy", says Jens (Yens)... "what about:"1940's Sychronized-Swimming Musicals?Ratpack era holiday tunes?Jackson 5 melodies?70's sitcom theme music?Blaxploitation end-credit scores?*gasp* SHOWTUNES?Jens' newest album, Night Falls Over Kortedala taps into all these genres and then some - and like an Idahoan Senator caught in the act, I immediately turn red faced and ranting. I DO NOT LIKE CHEESY MUSIC! I WAS FRAMED! BAHH! Yes, Jens had exposed me.... A long time self declared Cheese-o-phobe. But was my anger only a reaction against something deep inside myself? Am I a closet cheese lover living my life off of knee-jerk reactions against my own syrupy impulses?Turns out...not really. I'd love if I could just announce that I'm coming out of the cheese-closet (cupboard?) - and declare my newfound love of Rodgers and Hammerstein or Aaron Neville or Kenny G... but that's a pretty broad brush to paint with.I'm gonna have to stick with simply loving this new album. It took some doing...some serious repeated listening, and the occasional deathmetal chaser to wash the High Fructose Cheese Syrup out of my mouth....but I came to love this album.What did it? All it took was actually listening and realizing that Jens is in on the joke. Sure this is cheesy music, but why not give it a biting edge? Can bubbly orchestration accompany lyrics about severed fingers, dating a lesbian so her father won't find out, or telling a woman to kiss your ass?Turns out it can.So... be warned. If you're in a sour mood, this'll grate on you (ah! another cheese metaphor!)... but be doubly warned... you might, just might, find this hits you like the arrow hit Smaug... I'm not gonna be listening to the Cats soundtrack any time soon... but at least I can now go on feeling like another musical venue has been bested (even if Jens did all the work for me).
I like to consider myself an equal opportunity music aficionado. There were times in my ignorant youth that, when asked, I would declare my love for "everything pretty much..except rap music. and country." It was later in life, when I discovered the joys of acquired taste, that I forced myself to sit down and actually digest music from these respective categories. I soon found that once you wipe away the contemporary radio-swill, there will always be music that is as valid in it's existence as it is enjoyable.At least...that's what I've been telling myself all this time. Sure, I had came to terms with Country and Rap...then eventually Avant Garde, Noise Rock, Metal, Classical, you name it (the weirder the better) - I was convinced that there wasn't a category of sound that I couldn't conquer, add to the playlist, and hold aloft like a trophy declaring my expansive and superior taste in music.I've been sitting pretty smug on my pedestal for some time now... feeling like I'm part of some elite club that can hate popular music (simply for it's popularity) but can listen with appreciation to someone scratching on a log for 35 minutes while a woman cries in the background. It's art! I'm enlightened! Huzzah!Who would have thought that some skinny goofball of a kid from Sweden would come and knock me right off that pedestal and onto my ass.His name is Jens Lekman. I became interested mostly over the incredible reviews being hurled his way. 4 stars there, 9.0 there, 5 out of 5 clipart thumbs-up. So off I went to see what the fuss was about...and what I heard truly floored and confused me... and made me recoil in horror.I love all forms of music right? No genre is safe?"Oh yeah smart guy", says Jens (Yens)... "what about:"1940's Sychronized-Swimming Musicals?Ratpack era holiday tunes?Jackson 5 melodies?70's sitcom theme music?Blaxploitation end-credit scores?*gasp* SHOWTUNES?Jens' newest album, Night Falls Over Kortedala taps into all these genres and then some - and like an Idahoan Senator caught in the act, I immediately turn red faced and ranting. I DO NOT LIKE CHEESY MUSIC! I WAS FRAMED! BAHH! Yes, Jens had exposed me.... A long time self declared Cheese-o-phobe. But was my anger only a reaction against something deep inside myself? Am I a closet cheese lover living my life off of knee-jerk reactions against my own syrupy impulses?Turns out...not really. I'd love if I could just announce that I'm coming out of the cheese-closet (cupboard?) - and declare my newfound love of Rodgers and Hammerstein or Aaron Neville or Kenny G... but that's a pretty broad brush to paint with.I'm gonna have to stick with simply loving this new album. It took some doing...some serious repeated listening, and the occasional deathmetal chaser to wash the High Fructose Cheese Syrup out of my mouth....but I came to love this album.What did it? All it took was actually listening and realizing that Jens is in on the joke. Sure this is cheesy music, but why not give it a biting edge? Can bubbly orchestration accompany lyrics about severed fingers, dating a lesbian so her father won't find out, or telling a woman to kiss your ass?Turns out it can.So... be warned. If you're in a sour mood, this'll grate on you (ah! another cheese metaphor!)... but be doubly warned... you might, just might, find this hits you like the arrow hit Smaug... I'm not gonna be listening to the Cats soundtrack any time soon... but at least I can now go on feeling like another musical venue has been bested (even if Jens did all the work for me).
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