Jens Lekman - Regarding A Package
When Jens Lekman was approached by New York’s Esopus Magazine to write a piece of music based around “customary service” (which, after heartbreak, is often one of music’s most-mined subject matters, I’m sure you’ll agree) it appears he had a song in him just waiting to be written. As outlined on his website, Jens describes some bonkers packages he claims to have received from fans while living in Melbourne, including “food, dust, wooden sculptures, fluids, bottled air from Ohio”, and most weirdly/alarmingly of all, “a dead bird”. Now, as anyone will know who’s either Australian, or also mildly addicted to border security doc Nothing To Declare, Australia have some of the world’s strictest quarantine laws. This would leave poor Jens spending increasing amounts of time stuck on the phone speaking to customs about his latest packages.
His ode to these experiences is Regarding A Package, which is streamable below. Its high point comes with the somehow beautifully delivered lines: “Yes, I am calling regarding a package/ Long story who it’s from/ I believe it might contain a dead animal/ And told it’s stuck in customs for some reason”.
