Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “To Know Your Mission,” by Jens Lekman, from his 2017 album, Life Will See You Now, on Secretly Canadian.
Jens Lekman - To Know Your Mission (MP3)Swedish electro-pop savant Jens Lekman's song-writing has always displayed a self-awareness that makes it clear he is in-touch with his emotions. It may help explain why he has taken several steps back from his music career, including one that involved a stint working at a bingo parlor. So, in 2013, when his follow up album to the somber I Know What Love Isn't was rejected by his record label, it was no surprise that Lekman was aware of not only the decline in quality in his output, but also the need to get help. Lekman faced his depression and the fact that his "life story" no longer made sense through the help of therapy and self-reflection and in 2015 he got back on the song-writing horse, launching the Postcards project, in which Lekman wrote a song every week. The fruit of his work was the 2017 album Life Will See You Now, which leads off with song of the day "To Know Your Mission." The track addresses Lekman's period of disary in the form of a conversation between a missionary and a teenage-Lekman. Questions of "What's my mission?" begin the song, but by the time a skewered beat warps the piano ballad into a more upbeat affair, Lekman is belting "I know what I'm here for." As bells chime throughout the ballad and it ends in triumph, it is clear that Lekman has found his mojo once again.
Jens Lekman will be in Seattle to play The Crocodile on July 7th. In the meantime check out his Facebook and website, and watch the video for Life Will See You Now track "What's That Perfume That You Wear?" below:
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear.
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Mid…
