The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom (Oh You're So Silent Jens)

Maple Leaves

A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill

The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom (Night Falls Over Kortedala)

The Opposite of Hallelujah

Sipping On The Sweet Nectar

A Postcard to Nina

Your Arms Around Me

September 2, 2014

While travelling through midwest America some time ago I stopped at a gasstation and bought a WWJD bracelet for $1.99 and insisted that it stood for ‘What Would Jens Do?’. I would look at it when I felt indecisive, think about what Jens really would do and then do the opposite of that. I thought that would be a good way to find some new paths in life, and to get away from the paths I kept taking that didn’t lead me anywhere good.

WWJD is a song about regrets, learning from your mistakes, and bettering yourself. I wrote it last year, recorded it quickly and felt it didn’t fit in with most of the other songs I was writing. Together with ‘What’s That Perfume That You Wear?’ and ‘I Remember’ they weren’t adhering to the rules I had set up for my next album but they were also too good to forget. So I weaved them in exclusively on this mixtape where they are stations on a longer journey, where loops and smaller fragments, ideas for songs and favourite songs by others swoosh by outside the window. Feel free to open that window and feel the breeze in your hair.

Yours truly
Jens Lekman


0:00 - Jens Lekman - WWJD
3:05 - Bunny Maloney - Baby I’ve Been Missing You
6:18 - David Byrne - Theodora Is Dozing
7:59 - The 11:08 Train Swooshes By
09:52 - Jhene Aiko - Stranger
11:34 - Jennifer Lara - Our Love
13:10 - Georges Delerue - Theme from Camille
15:25 - Jens Lekman - What's That Perfume That You Wear?
18:47 - Ralph MacDonald - The Path
20:33 - All Your Sorrows Reversed
26:25 - Jens Lekman - I Remember

Contains smaller fragments from: The Philly Devotions - Yeah Yeah Girl. The Duprees - Why Don’t You Believe Me? Soul 2 Soul - Back To Life (acapella). Beethoven - Stringquartet no 5 in A Major. Dalida - Salma Ya Salama. Fairouz - Zourouni. Angel Haze - Same Love. Syl Johnsson - I Hate I Walked Away. Hermeto Pascoal - Musica da Lagoa. Crue-L Grand Orchestra - (You Are) More Than Paradise (Freaks Switching Channels 12inch Mix). Paul Johnson - Where Can You Be. Jim Nabors - With These Hands. Israel Vibration - The Same Song.

Lilian Paunovic Olsson sings harmonies on ‘WWJD’.

Thanks to Sara, Luís and Malin for the inspiration. 

WWJD MIXTAPE

Happy new year!

Here’s my new years resolution for 2015: While working on my next album, I will sit down once a week, write down my thoughts, turn them into a song and share it with you directly. Think of these songs as little postcards. Little greetings from me to you. 

You see, I spend a lot of time on my songs, on their details. I sweep the streets that my characters walk on and polish every doorknob until I feel confident to let other people in. But it does lead to a very isolated creative phase. 

And I’ve been longing to share my thoughts and life with you a bit more. I’ve been longing to write about things that make sense one particular day but that might make no sense once the album comes out. 

Then at the end of this year we can sit down you and me and listen through these 52 songs, and remember where we were and when we were there, who we kissed and who we missed. I’m looking forward to that. 

Yours truly
Jens Lekman

Postcard # 1

Postcard # 6

Samples from Franck Pourcel - La Maladie D'Amour
and Hans Zimmer - Cornfield Chase

Postcard # 6


Postcard # 22

Sample from Francis Bebey - The Coffee Cola Song

Postcard # 22

Songs for Other People's Weddings

Wedding in Leipzig

A Tuxedo Sewn For Two

GOT-JFK

Candy From A Stranger

Speak To Me In Music

Increasingly Obsolete

I Want To Want You Again (feat. Matilda Sargren & Peter Oren)

You Have One New Message (feat. Matilda Sargren)

With You I Can Hear My Own Voice

Just For One Moment

The First Lovesong

Wedding in Brooklyn

Two Little Pigs (feat. Matilda Sargren)

LEJ-GOT

For Skye

On a Pier, On the Hudson (feat. Matilda Sargren)

Postcard # 40

This postcard is from me and the always amazing Annika Norlin. We wrote this together in a few hours and recorded our vocals in the voice memo apps on our phones. The song samples a bit from After 7’s ’Til You Do Me Right’. 

Speaking of Annika, I’ll be singing on some of her songs this friday in Malmö if you’re there! I’m also DJ:ing a bit after the show. 



Postcard # 40


TRÄSKEPP
Story sent in by Catariina Salo
Music and lyrics by Jens Lekman
Vocals and guitar by Jens Lekman
Piano by Jonas Abrahamsson


Så länge jag kan komma ihåg
har jag alltid varit rädd för gamla träskepp
speciellt när dom står på land
uppdragna ur hav och hamn

Jag märkte det speciellt tydligt
när jag besökte Wasamuseet
när jag såg det gamla regalskeppet
började mitt hjärta rusa
jag börja hyperventilera
och tårarna började strömma
nerför mina kinder

Jag har gått runt och funderat
på vad det här kan betyda
Hade jag trott på tidigare liv
hade det varit lättare att acceptera
Jag bad en kollega
be en psykolog att analysera
min rädsla - han sa det var en glasklar syftning till
rädsla för en auktoritet
någonstans i barndomen
Boom! jag var ju faktist rädd för min far när jag var liten
Så jäkla textbook Freud
men så märkligt och knäppt
att det tar sig uttryck i en rädsla för träskepp




Träskepp

What's That Perfume That You Wear?

Life Will See You Now

How We Met, the Long Version

CORRESPONDENCE

Who Really Needs Who

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