Jens Lekman

At SXSW, the Swedish singer-songwriter sings about haircuts in his own ridiculous way. When a twentysomething musician makes records that sound more like Burt Bacharach than anything else, it's going to reek of either pretension or cheese. In Jens Lekman's case, it's both — and, surprisingly, the result is delightful.

Swedish indie-pop star Jens Lekman draws inspiration from some unlikely places for his latest album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, but the witty singer songwriter makes it work with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and carefully crafted sound.

Swedish pop star Jens Lekman sounds more like Lawrence Welk and Burt Bacharach than his American counterparts Kanye West and Ashlee Simpson. His deep, silky voice and instrumentation lends his music a retro pop feel, but the lyrics are too odd to be throwbacks.

For the past three weeks All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen put favorites CDs from 2007 into a playlist on his iPod and let it shuffle. In the end, the music he was consistently thrilled with hearing ended up on his final top ten for the year. For Boilen, hosting a music show is about trying to find music that listeners will fall in love with — music that will be a good friend and fill listeners with good memories.

Swedish pop artist Jens Lekman talks about his latest CD, Night Falls Over Kortedala and shares some of his favorite recordings. Hear selections from his new album, plus songs and musicians he's loving now, like Kim Ki O and the Rapper's Delight Club.