The pick of two near-simultaneous EP releases from the 22-year-old Swede, the four-track Maple Leaves is little short of astounding. While its counterpart, the Rocky Dennis EP, is all soft light and strings, this one swings moods with abandon. A droll miserablist of Smiths vintage, Lekman intones li...
The pick of two near-simultaneous EP releases from the 22-year-old Swede, the four-track Maple Leaves is little short of astounding. While its counterpart, the Rocky Dennis EP, is all soft light and strings, this one swings moods with abandon. A droll miserablist of Smiths vintage, Lekman intones like a baroque Stephin Merritt on the Left Banke-filching “Black Cab”: “Oh no Goddamn/I missed the last tram/I killed the party again/Goddamn Goddamn”. The title track is Morrissey backed by The Avalanches, while the doleful piano of “Sky Phenomenon” curses the social blight of being able to dance the funky chicken. A cover of the Television Personalities’ “Someone To Share My Life With” is the cherry topping.