Jens Lekman – Songs for Other People’s Weddings – 2LP Opaque Yellow Vinyl Record

Description

Jens Lekman is an accidental wedding singer. But hes also a wedding singer for a reason. Ever since his 2004 song If You Ever Need a Stranger (To Sing at Your Wedding) he has had a side gig fielding requests from strangers to sing at their weddings. For over twenty years, hes had a particular vantage point from which to see the role love songs can play in our lives. In 2020, he and novelist David Levithan co-conceived a novel-with-music,Songs from Other Peoples Weddings. Originally this album was meant to contain the songs from the weddings in the book, but as the novel came together, Lekman began to imagine what happened between the books chapters. The book and the album eventually became intertwined but also found their own paths. The book remained 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. The result is an exploration of what we sing about when we sing about love — euphoria, doubt, dislocation, tenderness, conflict, playfulness, gratitude, ingratitude, longing, belonging, questioning, answering. Its very much about a relationship and how its reflected through the relationships and weddings of others, but most of all its a lovesong to lovesongs.