Hi, everyone. Ithony Dotano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Jens Lekman project, Songs for Other People's Weddings.

Swedish singer-songwriter and veteran indie darling, Mr. Jens Lekman. He is back with this new and very ambitious, very conceptual album, which from the title is exactly what it says it is in a very literal sense.

Going into this album, you should know, Jens is not merely working at this idea from some notion of an outside perspective. But no, the inspiration from this album, as well as an accompanying book that came out over a month ago at this point, is based on his own time spent as a wedding singer, an opportunity that apparently he jumped on even after he was beginning to make a name for himself as an independent singer and songwriter. This guy was taking on sidequests pretty early on, you could say.

So, yeah, this is a world and a profession, I guess you could say. Mr. Lekman has been attached to in some way, shape, or form for years now. But still, when it came to the idea of executing an album of this magnitude with this narrative, conceptual angle, at first he was apprehensive, not only as this was something he hadn't really done before, but he had his own personal criticisms and issues with a narrative and high concept album such as this in the past.

However, I guess he felt more assured in going in this direction after connecting with friend and author, David Levithan, who apparently took part in the literary leg of this music book project.

So, yeah, throughout this album, we get a series of songs – 17 in fact – essentially about a wedding singer's experiences, among other things. And as a result of this, we really get a sense from Lekman why music is such a huge part of romance and just relationships in general. And in an effort to effectively make that case, we essentially hear a series of songs on this record that are told from different perspectives with different approaches.

Because, of course, numerous times over in the tracklist here, you have very beautiful, fun, infectious love songs. That's just a given, of course. But then on top of that, you have tunes and musical palettes that feel like they were literally crafted to be played at a wedding itself during certain moments, be it walking down the aisle, the first dance, or something just jovial and celebratory for the party afterwards.

Sidebar: while going this direction does lead to a lot of very pretty and ornate instrumental arrangements, simultaneously, there is something like very persistently polite, occasionally maybe toothless, about the music on this record even during its most danceable moments. Clearly, it was the goal going into this album to write, create, and record music that could be reasonably played at a wedding setting without necessarily offending anybody or souring the mood on the dance floor.

You also have transitional moments here and there on the record that essentially enhance the narrative voice of the wedding singer character traveling out and about to different airports. Then on top of that, there are other songs in the tracklist that merely read Mr. Lekman's observations on love, whether it is "With You, I Can Hear My Own Voice", which is not just an anthemic and well-arranged and produced a bit of anthemic and well-arranged and produced a bit of anthemic sophistipop, but it's actually just a really wonderful, lovely sentiment to relay in the midst of a love song.

I mean, there are all sorts of words and perspectives that have been written about love in song. But the idea that with you, you can hear your own voice, you get to know yourself better. This person is your mirror. They enhance your life and your sense of self in some way, that's a very beautiful and nice idea to get across. Something that runs a lot deeper than just merely like, I like you and a bunch of stuff about you I think is cool.

Also throughout some of these tracks, maybe not for the entirety of a song, but tucked in here and there on certain tracks, we do also have a lot of meditations on the downsides of love or maybe moments when relationships aren't at their best. For a record of this style with this concept, I'm actually surprised to hear Mr. Lekman touch down on that very idea so often. But maybe I can't really be surprised, considering this is a topic that this guy has been embracing and writing about for years now, whether it's with early tracks that obviously spurred this whole thing off, like "If You Ever Need a Stranger to Sing at Your Wedding", or even in his 2012 album titled, famously, I Know What Love Isn't.

So, yeah, overall, this is a very self-aware, focused project that is really, really deeply invested in its own concept. It's also said to be influenced, at least in part, by Frank Sinatra's own very narrative-based Watertown. But more than anything for me personally, musically, aesthetically, even lyrically at points, what this record really reminds me of is a different version or different approach to something like the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs, because you do have a lot of tracks, a lot of material on this record. There are a great deal of love songs on this record, obviously, but much of the singing and sometimes the playing has maybe a touch of an amateurish charm to it. The vibes overall are very cheery and quaint and sweet on the ears.

The whole thing comes together like a very theatrical revue of sorts, I guess you could say. Again, I do like how consistent aesthetically this record is. I do like how married to its own storytelling it is much of the time. I appreciate the ambition of it overall, but that doesn't mean that I don't have my issues with it because there are moments where it does feel bogged down by its own concept and storytelling, with this being such a lengthy record at 17 tracks, 80 minutes of run time.

There are plenty of moments, in my opinion, where it does feel almost like the story Mr. Lekman wants to get across overtakes the music itself. On "Speak to Me in Music", where he's literally going over the experience of working with a couple on the musical component of their upcoming ceremony. Of course, there's also the 10-minute long "Wedding in Leipzig", which does start off very strong, but once it really begins to trail off into these interlude moments and really extending the story out, it does become a daunting listen.

With that being said, though, this album is a very thorough character portrait and slice of life, I guess you could say, with a lot of wonderful tunes and highlights to boot. But you've really got to be in love with the idea of what this record is trying to accomplish and achieve to really enjoy a lot of those transitional moments that feel like they are merely just there to add to the storyline of it, and maybe not as much of merely the musical appeal of this project, which is why I'm feeling maybe about a strong 6 on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Jens Lekman, the Forever.