Rating 4.25/5.00
where 5 is a jazz album which lives up to the hype and more
In the past few months, I have got to a point in my wonderful, blessed life where I've come to accept my ordinariness more than ever before. Somehow I always felt that I was constantly evolving - enlightened by the wisdom of rock 'n 'roll (yeah!) and the depth of violent, sick cinema (yesh) - and then I realized the difference between Experience & Enlightenment. I was just gathering experiences - I'm a Pavlov's dog - as simple - as old - and as boring - I haven't managed to go beyond classical conditioning.
Experience doesn't help you in dealing with new situations OR situations where your brain can't find a similarity to your existing experience database. Enlightenment, on the other hand, helps you deal with ambiguity/new situations and obstacles because enlightenment draws a macro picture where you stand a hundred thousand feet above the ground below - naturally everything looks homogeneous and scary and hence logically deciding not to jump is easy. I got screwed because the only thing I have is experience.
I demand enlightenment - fuck EXPERIENCE! I've had enough of that shit.
This brings me to this interesting album - interesting because the two paras above have nothing to do with Lekman's poetic, soft pop and because the two paras above have everything to do with Lekman's dreamy songwriting. The realization that I need enlightenment came in the one second gap between Pocketful of Money and Black Cab - both are stunning songs and the way Lekman moves from a simple song structure to something more complex and surprising sets you on the road to realization. It does :-)
And the rest of the album ranges from pretty pop to prettier pop - with Jens the poet setting it apart! This is for those days when you aren't so sure of yourself, for times when you turn turn and turn again.
download it here
and read a very nice pitchfork review
dreams. the soft boys.
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