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Jens Lekman On World Cafe

XPN | By Talia Schlanger
Published April 10, 2017 at 9:00 AM EDT
Jens Lekman performs live at a WXPN Free At Noon concert.
Tiana Timmerberg
/
WXPN
Jens Lekman performs live at a WXPN Free At Noon concert.

Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman's new record is called Life Will See You Now. It feels sort of like going to a tropical roller disco with your therapist — and it comes after a period of colossal frustration that led Lekman to dump an entire truckload of his records in a landfill. As he tells it: "I felt like ... I need to find my way back to finding how to take something bad and make something beautiful, how to pour manure into a espresso machine and have a cappuccino come out."

Yep, that's Jens Lekman: wacky, poignant and ... visual. Hear the complete session, including both an interview and a live performance, in the player above.

Copyright 2017 XPN
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Talia Schlanger
Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.
See stories by Talia Schlanger