We’ve known that Jens Lekman has had another beautiful full-length offering in the works since he announced the album was 99% done last fall. Lekman played the new material on a short fall tour, and most recently gave us all a taste of three new tracks during a quick session with NPR.

Now the followup to 2012’s I Know What Love Isn’t officially has a name and release date. It’s called Life Will See You Now, and it’s out shortly after Valentine’s Day (or Single’s Awareness Day, whichever you celebrate). Lekman took his time perfecting this fourth album (fifth if you count the Oh You’re So Silent Jens comp). He’s been fine tuning it since the aforementioned tour, and it certainly shows. He uses his beautiful, delicate songwriting to play with incongruity, creating an unresolved tension between songs with happy subjects and sad aesthetics, and vice versa. Of course, the album also has Lekman’s signature light touch that registers heavy — all while incorporating elements of disco, calypso, samba, and bossa nova among other sounds.

The lead single is the upbeat yet subtly melancholy “What’s That Perfume That You Wear?” It features steel pans sampled from Ralph MacDonald’s 1978 song “The Path,” one of Lekman’s “favorite records ever.” The upbeat mood from the steel pans contrasts with the gloominess of his lyrics wonderfully. Listen.

Tour dates:

02/23 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Downstairs)
02/24 Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
02/25 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
02/27 Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
02/28 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
03/03 Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
03/05 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
03/08 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
03/09 Chicago, IL @ Metro
03/10 Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center for the Arts
03/11 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
03/13 Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall
03/15 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
03/16 Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall
03/17 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
03/18 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/19 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
03/28 Dublin, IE @ Whelans
03/29 London, UK @ Oval Space
03/30 Leeds, UK @ The Brudenell Social Club
03/31 Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall
04/01 Glasgow, UK @ St. Luke’s Church
04/03 Stockholm, SE @ Vasateatern
04/04 Uppsala, SE @ Uppsala Konsert & Kongress
04/05 Malmo, SE @ KB
04/06 Copenhagen, DK @ Studie 2
04/07 Orebro, SE @ Orebro Concert Hall
04/08 Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik
04/09 Oslo, NO @ John Dee

Tracklist:

01 “To Know Your Mission”
02 “Evening Prayer”
03 “Hotwire The Ferris Wheel”
04 “What’s That Perfume That You Wear?”
05 “Our First Fight”
06 “Wedding in Finistère”
07 “How We Met, The Long Version”
08 “How Can I Tell Him”
09 “Postcard #17″
10 “Dandelion Seed”

Lekman went into more detail about the album on his Facebook page in the post below.

Life Will See You Now is out 2/17 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.