I Know What Love Isn't

When it comes to idiosyncratic songwriters (and the indie world has a lot of them), Jens Lekman is among the most fascinating. He came into his own on 2007's Night Falls Over Kortedala, an LP in which he managed to turn the painfully mundane (ex-girlfriends using asthma inhalers) and the irreverently awkward (pretending to be the boyfriend of a lesbian friend at dinner with her disapproving parents) into a heart-achingly charming record. I Know What Love Isn't marks Lekman's first release in five years (If you exclude 2011's five-song EP An Argument With Myself) so it should come at no surprise that Lekman, now 31, has progressed some. Where past albums were sonically lush and full with genre-spanning samples,  I Know What Love Isn't first comes off as a bit mundane with its more traditional (yet still highly proficient) live studio sound. Lekman's charm may be a bit tougher to locate this time around, but it's certainly worth searching for. He has a way of expressing himself in a highly introspective way, dropping obscure references and anecdotes, yet using his sweeping charisma to make it all highly accessible in the end. This is most evident on the progression of "The World Moves On" to "The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love" where Lekman ties it all together in an interlocking pair of sentimental pick-me-ups.