Jens Lekman's Guide to a Broken Heart

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Photograph by Katie Anderson

Jens Lekman has always had a way with words: a wry wit and humble sense of self-depreciation clinging to every note. There is, however, one song or more specifically one turn of phrase that cuts just a little deeper than most, that exists in the core of our shared heartbreak. Anyone familiar with his most recent full length effort I Know What Love Isn’t undoubtedly knows that we’re talking about ‘The World Moves On’ and the eloquence of the line “You don’t get over a broken heart/ You just learn to carry it gracefully.” He, of course, always tries to leave us with a glimmer of hope: “it’s so cheap to just say everything’s fucked,” he said to The Quietus recently. With that in mind we figured we should take some pointers from Lekman and his recent London outing on just how to carry a broken heart gracefully.

Sell Out The Hackney Empire

Well, yes we know this isn’t going to work for everyone but seeing the faces of over a thousand fans beaming back at you through rich red hues and glistening ornate gold banisters has got to make you feel good right? Particularly when they give you three standing ovations, clap along giddily to a song you wrote nearly ten years ago (‘Black Cab’) and provide levels of adoration that result in ‘Pocketful of Money’ never being without its trademark clicking percussion and, thanks to a group of girls in the balcony, its looping ‘Gravedigger Blues’ refrain “I’ll come running with a heart on fire.” Whilst some would argue that a full band and live brass section sacrifices a certain level of intimacy, Jens erudite emotional sentiments remain – their fragility underpinned by the near perfect recreation of the new album’s bigger sound.

Go Into The Jewellery Business

Not really, but Jens does play a “new” song for us tonight that he says, amongst other things, is about his short lived career in the jewellery business. He has been playing ‘The Golden Key’ live for a while now, often pairing it with ‘The Opposite of Hallelujah’ but he hopes it will feature on some other release in the not too distant future. He also apologises for taking 5 years to make his new album.

Become An Excellent Raconteur

Almost every song from start to finish is marked by an anecdote, usually one he has told before but one that is no less amusing. He discusses how getting married for a Green Card seemed appealing because of the lack of emotional complication involved but ultimately his need to tell the story trumped his need to stay in Australia (‘I Know What Love Isn’t’). Of how he spent a night “manically stalking” Kirsten Dunst through Gothenburg and how he had to pretend to be someone’s fiancé with little forewarning (‘A Postcard To Nina’). He dedicates ‘Some Dandruff on Your Shoulder’ to the heartbreakers, because “there are already way to many songs written for the heart broken” and you know, those doing the breaking go through a tough time too.

Soar Around The Stage Like You’re An Aeroplane

Night Falls Over Kortedala number ‘Sipping on The Sweet Nectar’ brings the main set to a close, and what better way to celebrate your 500th live show than to zoom around the stage with your hands in the air pretending you’re an aeroplane. I mean the shimmying disco rhythms, soaring 70s inspired harmonies, blusterous brass and rolling bongo drums practically beg for such wonderfully carefree moves and in their own way pay homage to the track’s official video. Now, go on, you try it and tell me you don’t immediately feel better?!

Realise that “a broken heart is not the end of the world”

He may need it explaining “over and over” but even Jens has to concede that some things are “bigger than love”, even when the pain felt has to be compared to an event as epic as the end of the world. How else could one man’s heartbreak can fill a space so completely?