New Jens Lekman Mixtape: The Summer Never Ends

Oh Jens, is there anything you do that we won’t blog about? Sure, you may have publicly denounced the ukulele and admittedly broke our collective hearts, but as long as you keep filling our spring with unexpected treats we’ll keep running back with big cartoon stars in our puppy dog eyes. First there was the languid tropicalia surprise of “Happiness Will Be My Revenge” that you recorded with a 30-woman-strong Swedish a capella group, and now I’ve received word via We Love You So that you’ve just dropped a new mixtape like a bolt out of blue. Jens, you know how to keep me satisfied.

The mix, titled “The Summer Never Ends,” can be downloaded for free as one 32-minute mp3 from jenslekman.com (there’s no linking to individual posts, so just look for the post dated “May 17th, Two Thousand and Fine”). The mix traverses Nicolette Larsson to Cat Stevens, with unironic splashes of French horn and Italo-disco. There are only a few snippets of what may ultimately be new Jens material, but the entire thing is worth downloading for the overdubbed conversation between Alicia Keyes and Mikael Carlsson of The Honeydrips.

Lekman has a history of randomly erasing his entire online presence without warning, so I’d recommend downloading the mixtape while you still have the chance.

The Summer Never Ends, Pt. 3: (excerpt from) The Summer Never Ends /// I Really Think That We Can Make It Girl /// Nicolette Larsson – Lotta Love /// The Embassy – State 08 /// (excerpt from) New Directions /// Coke Escovedo – I Wouldn’t Change A Thing /// Filippo Trecca – La Morte Dell’erminia /// His name is Mikael Carlsson, her name is Alicia Keys /// Lamont Dozier – Blue Sky and Silver Bird /// Cat Stevens – If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out /// Jeff Perry – Love Don’t Come No Stronger /// Good News – Australia /// Baby’s Gang – America /// American Breed – Always You