This Is Our Jam: Jens Lekman, “An Argument With Myself”

There’s something about about Jens Lekman’s bashful gosh-wow sincerity that asks listeners to buy in completely or not at all. For someone as sensitive and as kind as Jens is, listening becomes a weirdly intimate experience. It’s the type of friends-for-years connection that makes you feel comfortable referring to him by first name, but not the sort of performer you’d want to take a girl to see on a first date (which is exactly what I did last December at Jens’ sold-out show at the Green Union Building in Brooklyn). It was the first time I’d ever seen Jens play live, and a hushed excitement rippled through the sea of beards and sweaters. The feeling in the room bordered on reverence, as if any sudden movement would scare the Swedish pop star back into hiding. My mistake was thinking my date would be as in love with Jens as I was.

Jens Lekman’s new single “An Argument With Myself” holds to the same storytelling-twee-literalism that has defined all of his past music, but has to be the most purely fun track Jens has released since “A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill”—and definitely his most theatrical song ever. As he narrates a convoluted dialogue inside his own head, the tropical tempo rises and falls to match his conversation. “Fuck you!” sings Jens to Jens, to which Jens responds “No, you fuck you!” It's his goofy self-awareness and trademark self-doubt taken to its most extreme. Jens isn’t for everyone, but longtime fans will find immediate pleasure in “An Argument With Myself.” And if you were wondering, my girlfriend and I are still happily together, so maybe this song will win him some new fans as well.