Jens Lekman @ The Corner Hotel 11/03/08

“This is a song about cutting all the bullshit and the lies, so we can get on with our lives,” deadpans the incongruously sweet-faced Swede Jens Lekman before launching a capella into the brutal, but undeniably catchy ‘I Am Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You’. The other members of his oddball-yet-gorgeous band then join him on stage for the rest of the song and it blooms with the familiar lush production of the joyous album from which it is plucked – Night Falls Over Kortedala – an album part Scott Walker, part Four Tops seasoned with a dash of wry Jarvis Cocker.

The show is perfectly pitched – intimate, yet celebratory, Jens’s songs lose nothing in the translation from studio to stage, thanks to some well placed samples from an onstage PC and the enthusiasm of his part-Swedish, part-Australian band, which includes a stunning girl in a bright yellow jumpsuit on drums, an angular alchemist on samples, a pixie-like bassist and a compact string section. That voice is enough to carry a two hour gig with very little assistance, but the ensemble feel turns his set into a party.

There are some jovial road tales, an extended spoken word introduction to ‘Postcard to Nina’ (about a lesbian friend of his who presents him as her ‘boyfriend’ to her conservative father) and some self-mockery when we hear a snippet of Kylie’s ‘Give me Just a Little More Time’ during ‘The Opposite of Hallelujah’. We’re even treated to some formation dancing antics, with everybody leaving their stage positions to ‘fly’ around the stage like aeroplanes during the bridge of ‘Sipping on the Sweet Nectar’. It sounds twee, but it works; it’s guileless and charming.

For all the fun and games, Jens runs a tight ship, and when sound problems (a speaker threatening to explode in close proximity to this reviewer’s eardrum) emerge during ‘Nina’ he makes his displeasure known in no uncertain terms, though he never loses his sense of humour in the process.

The shimmering ‘Arms Around me’ is a highlight. With its meandering beat and Johnny Marr-esque riff, it sounds like all the best bits of indie pop from the last twenty years. The same can be said of ‘Black Cab’. For the finale Jens gets brilliant support act Gary Olsen back on stage on trumpet for a stomping Motown-tinged number, and then enjoins us to whistle the riff to ‘Friday night at the drive in Bingo’, with surprising success. It’s comforting to hear that Jens might be bringing his Swedish pop sensibilities to Melbourne for good – he’s a delight.