(This is why it's my favorite record of 2004)
Jens Lekman's "If You Ever Need A Stranger (To Sing At Your Wedding)" just damn near made me cry. Specifically, the part at the end where that beautiful, unimaginably sad wordless female vocal starts and he oh so quietly sings "And oh, it's just like a whirlwind". It easily rivals anything on 69 Love Songs in terms of heart-tugging beauty (and really, off the top of my head, only "All My Little Words" and "Asleep And Dreaming" really come close).
And of course, the next song is just as good although entirely different; "Sylvia" is disturbing enough just glossed at some sort of break up song ("Don't shed no useless tears / Oh Sylvia, no one would care in a hundred years"), and once you listen closely and see that Lekman is singing as someone who either has or is fantasizing about having kidnapped either a queen or princess, it's even more so:
"No-one will ever forget your name
They'll look after your grave
But it's not the same, you say
Oh it's just you and me, Sylvia"
And of course it's still beautiful. And of course the next song, "The Cold Swedish Winter", is just as good and just as entirely different. I doubt it'll be on many others' lists, but album of the year for me.
And of course, the next song is just as good although entirely different; "Sylvia" is disturbing enough just glossed at some sort of break up song ("Don't shed no useless tears / Oh Sylvia, no one would care in a hundred years"), and once you listen closely and see that Lekman is singing as someone who either has or is fantasizing about having kidnapped either a queen or princess, it's even more so:
"No-one will ever forget your name
They'll look after your grave
But it's not the same, you say
Oh it's just you and me, Sylvia"
And of course it's still beautiful. And of course the next song, "The Cold Swedish Winter", is just as good and just as entirely different. I doubt it'll be on many others' lists, but album of the year for me.
