The following text field will produce suggestions that follow it as you type.

When I Said Wanted to Be Your Dog
When I Said Wanted to Be Your Dog

When I Said Wanted to Be Your Dog in Bloomington, MN

Current price: $15.99
Loading Inventory...
Get it at Barnes and Noble

Size: CD

Get it at Barnes and Noble
Jens Lekman
is a lovable goofball. Coming on like a mix of
Beck
,
Calvin Johnson
Stephin Merritt
, and
Morrissey
(with all the blend of humor and emotion that list entails),
Lekman
seems destined for indie sainthood. In fact, in his native Sweden he is a bona fide
pop
star.
When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog
reached the Top Ten of the album charts in mid-2004. The three EPs on
Secretly Canadian
leading up to this record have been solid songcraft mixed with
wackiness. Expect more of the same here, only better. He must have been saving his best songs for the album, because there isn't a dog in the bunch. Kicking off with the warped
"Tram #7 to Heaven,"
which begins with the deathless lyrical couplet "Did you take Tram #7 to heaven/Did you eat your banana from 7-11," delivered in
's best deadpan
Jonathan Richman
voice, the album is a wild ride punctuated by clever samples, drop-dead gorgeous melodies, tender feelings, and silly jokes. The best songs are filled with moments that leave you startled by the level of invention, enthusiasm, and starry-eyed wonder: the careening steel drum samples of
"Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa,"
the bubbling
"You Are the Light,"
which is a thrilling mix of
Dexys Midnight Runners
Saturday Looks Good to Me
, and the best
baroque pop
/
soul
of the '60s (think
the Left Banke
mixed with
the Rascals
), the fluttering violins of the fragile and queasily intimate
"A Higher Power,"
and the tilt-a-whirl harp samples of the aforementioned
"Tram #7."
The low-key
ballads
can be affecting too, especially
"If You Ever Need a Stranger"
(taken from the
Rocky Dennis
EP), on which
offers his services as a wedding singer and desperate lover ("I would cut off my right arm to be someone's lover"), the folky
"Julie,"
and the sweetly strange
"When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog,"
a song that has
's most intimate and honest vocal on the record.
knows how to craft songs that stick in your mind. Almost every song here is the kind you find yourself humming at odd moments.
"When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog"
won't even come within sniffing distance of the U.S. charts, but don't let that stop you from discovering one of the goofiest, most artlessly charming talents to arrive since
. ~ Tim Sendra
Powered by Adeptmind