Always one to create charming music from seemingly banal subject matter, Jens Lekman has been at work once more, contributing towards a forthcoming ESOPUS magazine themed audio compilation called “Customer Service.” Bringing together songs about the contributing artist’s experience with customer service, Lekman uses the fan mail he received while living in Australia as inspiration. About it, Lekman wrote:
“When I was living in Melbourne I used to get some really weird (but occasionally really fun) packages from some fans who had been able to track down my new address. There were packages with food, dust, wooden sculptures, fluids, bottled air from Ohio and on at least one occasion – a dead bird. Sealed in a plastic bag apparently but still a dead bird.
I say apparently because Australia has some of the strictest quarantine rules in the world and I only heard about it from the customs. Most of this stuff never reached me, sometimes the package would show up with a note notifying me what was missing and why it had been removed. Most times I had to call the customs and talk to them, this started taking up a lot of time.”
Listen to the keyed-ditty below, which I can’t help but think bears a similarity to Sigur Rós’ “Hoppípolla.” Nonetheless, it’ll (hopefully) make you think twice before you decide to mail that dead dove.
