May. 15, 2013 - Issue #917: The Roadtrip Issue
I Know What Love Isn’t
Jens Lekman {recordings_bands_mg} I Know What Love Isn’t {/recordings_bands_mg}
Secretly Canadian,
3
Catching up with an old friend after a long absence can be surprisingly awkward: the simple question of "what's new" becomes a daunting query when everything in your life has changed. Where do you begin? Sometimes the honest response is the hardest to hear. It's been five years since Jens Lekman's last full-length album, the stunning Night Falls Over Kortedala, and that should be enough time for Lekman to give us an earful. Instead, I Know What Love Isn't replies with some simple anecdotes before coming around to tell us how he's really doing: he's heartbroken. But he's learning how to cope, as he later explains in "The World Moves On": "You don't get over a broken heart, you just learn to carry it gracefully."I Know What Love Isn't is not a breakup album—it's the post-breakup album. It doesn't delve into questions of "why," and it doesn't focus on the relationship itself. Instead, the album follows a few moments of a crumbling courtship and walks by Lekman's side as he meanders through his life, trying to pick himself back up again. You know the man needs a hug from the song titles alone, with tracks like "She Just Don't Want to Be With You Anymore," "Become Someone Else's" and "The End of the World is Bigger Than Love." On previous albums Lekman balanced out the sadness in his songs with his dry wit, clever lyrics or comedic situations. But Lekman isn't playing the part of the knowing, winking narrator any longer on I Know What Love Isn't, instead offering up his most fragile and honest record yet.
And that's the very reason that this album won't be for everyone. The palette is there for a great Jens Lekman album, but the hue has faded from his earlier albums and it just doesn't quite work. Lekman still employs strings, exotic percussion, wind instruments and his faithful croon, but it all takes place with a somber tone, his youthful wonder long abandoned. On previous albums, such as Night Falls ... , Lekman took the listener around the globe with the use of bombastic samples and diverse instrumentation. I Know What Love Isn't stays put, and, for better or worse, sounds cohesively uniform. This works well in giving the album a consistent tone, but upon repeated listens it's difficult to find a solid "single" that would win any casual listeners, whereas 2011's An Argument With Myself EP was more diverse, both sonically and lyrically. Here, Lekman offers an album as a whole; take it or leave it. I Know What Love Isn't is where the man is at, and it's the soundtrack of his heart moving on.
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