Jens Lekman has announced a tour and his first solo album in eight years. Songs for Other People’s Weddings, a companion LP to a book of the same name by Lekman and bestselling author David Levithan, arrives September 12 via Secretly Canadian, while the novel is due out August 5 via Abrams Books. Leading the record is the single “Candy From a Stranger,” which comes with a Rena Johnson–edited video. Watch below.
Songs for Other People’s Weddings draws directly from Lekman’s own pivot toward a side career as a wedding singer. The gigs started accumulating after he wrote the 2004 song “If You Ever Need a Stranger (To Sing at Your Wedding)” and fans reached out requesting to book him for their own nuptials. As if to prove his credentials, “Candy From a Stranger” documents his unlikely foray into marriage ceremonies by collaging clips from weddings at which he’s performed for its music video.
The Swedish singer-songwriter’s new LP follows his 2017 solo full-length, Life Will See You Now, as well as Correspondence, his 2019 collaborative album with Annika Norlin. Lekman also reissued his 2005 compilation Oh You’re So Silent Jens and 2007 album Night Falls Over Kortedala with new redux versions of select tracks, previously unreleased songs, and cassette diaries from the albums’ era.
Lekman will tour North America this autumn in support of Songs for Other People’s Weddings. He’s currently slated to start the tour on November 8 in Minneapolis. From there, he hits up cities like Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, before concluding the run on December 3 in Seattle. Find Lekman’s complete list of tour dates below.
Read about Night Falls Over Kortedala at No. 153 in “The 200 Best Albums of the 2000s.”
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Songs for Other People’s Weddings:
01 The First Lovesong
02 A Tuxedo Sewn for Two
03 Candy From a Stranger
04 Two Little Pigs [ft. Matilda Sargren]
05 Speak to Me in Music
06 With You I Can Hear My Own Voice
07 I Want to Want You Again [ft. Matilda Sargren and Peter Oren]
08 GOT-JFK
09 Wedding in Brooklyn
10 For Skye
11 Increasingly Obsolete
12 On a Pier, on the Hudson [ft. Matilda Sargren]
13 Wedding in Leipzig
14 LEJ-GOT
15 You Have One New Message [ft. Matilda Sargren]
16 Just for One Moment
17 The Last Lovesong
Jens Lekman:
11-08 Minneapolis, MN – Amsterdam Bar & Hall
11-09 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
11-10 Toronto, Ontario – The Great Hall
11-12 Boston, MA – The Sinclair
11-13 Northampton, MA – Iron Horse
11-14 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
11-16 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
11-17 Washington, D.C. – Union Stage
11-19 Durham, NC – Motorco Music Hall
11-21 Atlanta, GA – The EARL
11-22 Nashville, TN – Exit/In
11-24 Dallas, TX – Deep Ellum
11-25 Austin, TX – Mohawk
11-28 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
11-29 Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
11-30 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
12-02 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
12-03 Seattle, WA – Neumos
