It's been too long since we've gotten new music from Jens Lekman — unless you count the re-recordings of his old work, about which we spoke to Lekman back in 2022. Lekman last graced us with new music in 2019, when he and Annika Norlin officially released their back-and-forth songwriting exchange Correspondence. Now he's finally got a fresh LP for us, and it's once again a unique collaboration.
For the forthcoming Songs For Other People's Weddings, Lekman teamed with David Levithan, the author behind such works as Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, on an intertwined novel and album. The book is coming out Aug. 5, and the album will follow on Sept. 12. Levithan sums up the plot: "It is the story of the wedding singer (J), his girlfriend of two years (V), and the things that happen within their relationship when she moves to New York without him."
Songs For Other People's Weddings is partially inspired by Lekman's experience as a real-life wedding singer. After the release of his 2004 track "If You Ever Need A Stranger (To Sing At Your Wedding)," he began to receive requests for just such a service. "It was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but people took it very seriously and started asking me to actually play at their weddings," Lekman says. "Which I did happily; it was an honor. In the 2010s, when streaming made it harder to make a living from music, the wedding gigs became a way to get by financially, and also gave new meaning to music itself."
As Levithan explains, before the pandemic, Lekman approached him about working together on this project:
I’m a novelist with an interest in love songs, and Jens and I have corresponded ever since I got in touch with him in 2005, after listening to his album on repeat while writing a book. I wanted to thank him for the soundtrack. We kept in touch over the years, and shortly before the pandemic, he approached me with the idea for a novel about an indie musician who plays weddings. I was intrigued. To make it a true collaboration, I suggested we add a twist: that the wedding singer writes an original song for each couple, based on a conversation with them about their love (which Jens had done before, but not for every wedding.) Half the chapters of the book would be written with me telling the story of the wedding first and Jens having to supply the couple’s song after. The other half would start with Jens giving me a song, and then me having to come up with the story that led to the song.
The lead single from Songs For Other People's Weddings, "Candy From A Stranger," is out today with a music video edited by Rena Johnson. Lekman says the song documents "the point in the story where the lovers meet for the first time, or do they?" He continues:
The idea to make a narrative concept album (a rock opera?) felt forbidden. Which, for me, is usually a sign that I'm on the right path. While investigating the genre of narrative concept albums, I realized that one of my all-time favorite albums, Frank Sinatra's Watertown, was in fact just that– a record that told a chronological story over the length of an LP. Having never been a fan of musicals or rock operas, this album served as inspiration.
I wrote the album while the book was still being written and, at some points, I started imagining what happened between the book's chapters. The book and the album eventually became intertwined but also found their own paths. The book provided the structure of the story, but the album sometimes snuck behind the scenes. Stories from the songs made their way into the book and vice versa.
Watch the "Candy From A Stranger" video below, where you'll also find Lekman's North American tour dates(!).
TRACKLIST:
01 "The First Lovesong"
02 "A Tuxedo Sewn For Two"
03 "Candy From A Stranger"
04 "Two Little Pigs"
05 "Speak To Me In Music"
06 "With You I Can Hear My Own Voice"
07 "I Want To Want You Again"
08 "GOT-JFK"
09 "Wedding In Brooklyn"
10 "For Skye"
11 "Increasingly Obsolete"
12 "On A Pier, On The Hudson"
13 "Wedding In Leipzig"
14 "LEJ-GOT"
15 "You Have One New Message"
16 "Just For One Moment"
17 "The Last Lovesong"
TOUR DATES:
11/08 - Minneapolis, MN @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall
11/09 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
11/10 - Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall
11/12 - Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
11/13 - Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse
11/14 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
11/16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/17 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage
11/19 - Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
11/21 - Atlanta, GA @ The EARL
11/22 - Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
11/24 - Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum
11/25 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk
11/28 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
11/29 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
11/30 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
12/02 - Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
12/03 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Songs For Other People's Weddings (the album) is out 9/12 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here. Songs For Other People's Weddings (the novel) is out 8/5 via Abrams. Pre-order it here.
