Jens Lekman Reveals ‘The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom’

Jens Lekman Reveals 'The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom'

Jens Lekman, has released an enhanced reissue of his cherished 2007 Secretly Canadian album Night Falls Over Kortedala, under a new title, The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom, and featuring previously unreleased material. The album’s new, recently recorded title track is a bittersweet and reworked reprise of the Kortedala classic “A Postcard to Nina,” wherein Lekman sends a follow-up message to Nina 15 years later. The song arrives with a Jesper Norda & Kristian Berglund-directed video that finds Lekman today viewing a VHS tape of himself back in 2003.

“”A Postcard to Nina” was a song that wrote itself,” explains Lekman. “The story happened and on the bus back home from Berlin I realized I just needed to put a melody to it. Nina was my pen pal but we lost touch at some point, years ago. Last time I wrote her, the email bounced. It’s just one of those things that happens I guess but as I was revisiting these old songs, I decided I wanted to send her one more postcard.” Stream The Linden Trees Are Still in Blossom at all DSPs here, and listen to a new episode of Secretly Canadian’s ‘Secretly Society Podcast,’ which explores and celebrates this release, here.

The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom follows The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom, a similar revamp of 2005’s Oh You’re So Silent Jens. Both albums, which no longer exist in their original forms, are now available for streaming at all DSPs and will see vinyl releases on June 3rd

A pair of lovingly and painstakingly assembled reduxes, The Linden Trees… and The Cherry Trees… keep the same core tracklisting, spirit, and source material as their originals, while blending brand new versions of some tracks—in part or in whole—together with many tracks left largely as they were. Both records also now feature rare, previously unreleased songs, as well as other contemporaneous material such as cassette diaries. “These new records are like portals that can lead you to the old records if you want,” Lekman reflects. “I think that they can lead you to another time and place, where you could work with music in a different way.

In many ways the remaking of these records is so much in line with what I was doing at the time,” muses Lekman. “These records are a way of keeping music alive. It’s not preserving music; it’s allowing it to change. Preserved music is dead. I think that’s something that makes me sad about music these days, that it feels sometimes like it’s a big museum. Like butterflies dipped into chloroform pinned to the wall. This is music that is allowed to change. That is in the music’s nature.”

Jens Lekman
The Linden Trees Are Still in Blossom
Tracklist

1. And I Remember Every Kiss
2. Sipping On The Sweet Nectar
3. The Opposite Of Hallelujah
4. A Postcard To Nina
5. Into Eternity
6. I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You
7. If I Could Cry (it Would Feel Like This)
8. Your Arms Around Me
9. Shirin
10. It Was A Strange Time In My Life
11. Kanske Är Jag Kär I Dig
12. Friday Night At The Drive – In Bingo
13. Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death
14. Our Last Swim In The Ocean
15. A Little Lost
16. Radio NRJ
17. The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom
18. When I’m Swimming

Jens Lekman 2022 Tour Dates:

5/5/22 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
5/6/22 – Tacoma, WA – ALMA
5/7/22 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
5/9/22 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban
5/11/22 – Denver, CO – Bluebird
5/13/22 – Milwaukee, WI – Back Room @ Colectivo
5/14/22 – Minneapolis, MN – Cedar
5/16/22 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
5/18/22 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Warhol
5/20/22 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
5/22/22 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
5/23/22 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
5/25/22 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club