Life Will See You Now is the fourth studio album by Swedish indie pop musician Jens Lekman. The album was released on 17 February 2017 through Secretly Canadian.
The album's title and release date were first announced on 4 January 2017, accompanied by the release of its lead single, "What's That Perfume That You Wear?" A second song, "Evening Prayer", was released on 7 February.
Background Lekman had finished a follow-up record to his third studio album I Know What Love Isn't in 2014, but scrapped it after he felt that the finished product "sounded like [he] had given up". The following year, he launched a project he entitled Postcards, which saw him writing and releasing a new song each week of the year, and his more freeform approach to songwriting on Postcards carried over to the making of Life Will See You Now. In an interview about the making of the album, Lekman said: "I wanted it to be a pop record... I Know What Love Isn't was almost an extreme narrowing of the palette I was using, but for this one I wanted it to be more colorful. I wanted there to be more instruments. I was learning about drum machines and electronic instruments when I was making this."
Critical reception
Life Will See You Now received highly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 23 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".
Accolades Publication Accolade Rank PopMatters Top 60 Albums of 2017 The Skinny Top 50 Albums of 2017 Spectrum Culture Top 20 Albums of 2017 Under the Radar Top 100 Albums of 2017
Track listing
Sample credits "What's That Perfume That You Wear?" contains samples of "The Path", written by Ralph MacDonald, William Eaton, and William Salter, and performed by Ralph MacDonald. "How We Met, The Long Version" contains samples of "Don't Stop Dancin'", written by Alvin Stewart and performed by Jackie Stoudemire.
Personnel Credits for Life Will See You Now adapted from liner notes.
Jens Lekman – vocals, handclapping, piano, writing, production
Additional personnel
Madelene Birgenius – piano Matt Colton – mastering Henri Davies – recording (assistant) Alex de Little – trombone Alice Dixon – strings Anna Eichholz – strings Linnéa Eketrä – accordion Josa Gerhard – strings Ellika Henrikson – photography Ellen Hjalmarsson – strings Emelie Jonazon – saxophone Paul B. Keeves – bass Loulou Lamotte – vocals, background vocals Kristin Lidell – trumpet Sasse Lindblad – mixing Malin Nordström – composition Jonas Odhner – engineering (horns) Ewan Pearson – engineering, handclapping, mixing, production, recording, programming, Solina Dominik Petzold – piano Guy Sternberg – engineering, recording Jackie Stoudemire – sampling Tracey Thorn – composition, vocals Nathaniel David Utesch – layout – artwork Nicolai Ziel – drums, percussion
Charts Chart (2017) Peak position New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ) 8
References