“If you ever need a stranger to sing at your wedding, a last-minute choice, then I am your man,” Jens Lekman sang on one of his debut album tracks (2004).
Although the Swede’s proposition was “meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek”, requests for his services flooded in and an “accidental wedding singer” was born.
Songs For Other People’s Weddings – a companion piece to the book of the same name, co-written with David Levithan – is a narrative concept album with musical theatre potential.
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Matilda Sargren was only meant to sing on the demos, but proved too perfect to replace. Nuptial-fit instrumentation abounds, occasionally overlaid with the joyous din of revellers.
“If anybody objects to this, speak now or shut your face…” – Lekman’s cheeky. He’s also a skilled whistler. A Tuxedo Sewn For Two describes one wedding’s two tuxedoed grooms, standing side-by-side at the urinal as they “struggle to zip their flies”.
Candy From A Stranger serves wedding inspo: “Wait, what was that pill you gavе to me?/ It tasted like hairspray/ And now the music’s in my veins…”
On A Pier, On The Hudson is a piano-house belter, with Lekman channeling Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor.
The 10-plus minute Wedding In Leipzig – with its fortissimo piano chords, hiccupy beat, soaring strings and spoken-word narrative – boasts a boppy, playful feel. Once that “doo-doo-doo” section swoops in, we’re drowning in romantic bliss (think: Annie Lennox’s No More I Love Yous).
Lekman’s irreverent wedding songs are lovingly customised (eg. “He was Belgian and smelt of camomile and Camel Blue”), with bonus self-depricating LOLs (“I make a fortune from my streams on Spotify”). Don’t be put off by the wedding theme.
LABEL: SECRETLY CANADIAN
RELEASE: 12 SEP
