"Gonna gather up a few of my friends," sings Jens Lekman on the first single from the forthcoming Night Falls Over Kortedala, which is just he did for his third LP, rounding up Frida Hyvonen and El Perro Del Mar to guest on the Swede-pleasing record.The record's also the not-so-silent Jens's sonic goodbye card to the Kortedala neighborhood of Gothenburg, Sweden which he calls home. He writes (via P4K):
What a depressing suburban hell this place is. Everyone goes to bed at nine, after that you can't see one single window lit up. You can walk for hours without meeting one single person. I used to like that, 'cause it meant I could go for endless walks and pretend the world was my own and I was the only one in it. But after a while I found out the hard way that there were others who couldn't sleep at night ... In Kortedala everyone's minding their own business. And I'm slowly turning into one of them so as soon as I've finished this record I will get the hell out of here.
There's also a bit about how Jens gets mugged on the regular, but we know your hearts can't bare to read it (just head over if you must). No, we're just gonna present you with a download of the swingin' single from the record, with Jens painting his "tiny tiny ... Swedish country town" with a '50s brush as an apparently idyllic place to chill-out and play bingo -- 'til you encounter the "narrow mind"s, mind. When the bridge comes and those strings set in, the illusion's revealed. Oh you're so subversive, Jens.
Jens Lekman - "Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo" (MP3)
Night Falls Over Kortedala is out 10/9 on Secretly Canadian. Check the polaroid-y cover.
