Music from three different continents this week:
- Sweden’s Jen Lekman delivers a chamber-pop concept album about his side-hustle as a wedding singer.
- Margo Price delivers an authentic country album, steeped in tradition.
- I review my friend’s prog-metal concept album.
Jens Lekman
Songs for Other People’s Weddings
2025, 8.5/10
On my first album there was a song called If You Ever Need a Stranger (To Sing at Your Wedding) which wasn’t really meant to be taken seriously. But people did. And so for the last 21 years I’ve been singing at weddings and writing wedding songs for couples. It’s been a way of supporting my songwriting career financially as well as giving music a purpose in the streaming economy.
Jens Lekman
Lekman released Songs for Other People’s Weddings in tandem with a book. Both loosely chronicle his unexpected career as a wedding singer, although ‘Songs for Other People’s Weddings’ feels more like a series of snapshots than a cohesive narrative.
It’s the Swedish songwriter’s first album of new material since 2017. The concept seems to have reenergised him – the record is 80 minutes long and full of fascinating songs. If there’s a complaint, it’s the slow start – the album’s first half is overly dependent on subdued piano ballads.
‘I Want To Want You Again’ sounds like a Jim Steinman-penned Meatloaf duet. ‘Two Little Pigs’ baroque flourishes showcase Lekman’s arranging flair.
Lekman dives headlong into a pop sheen on the fast-paced ‘On a Pier, On the Hudson’. ‘Wedding in Leipzig’ is also lively, with some of the album’s best lines “He asks why I sing at weddings and I say it makes me feel like a midwife/Like I deliver these people into the next phase of their lives”.
Lekman sounds inspired on this impressive concept album.
Margo Price
Hard Headed Woman
2025, 7.5/10
Margo Price grew up in small-town Illinois, playing piano and singing in her church choir. She spent her twenties in Nashville, working in odd jobs, including teaching children to dance at a YMCA. She didn’t start her career as a recording artist until her thirties, and Hard Headed Woman is her fifth studio album.
We’re living in a time where people are just stripping away women’s rights. That is why I wanted this album to be called Hard Headed Woman“.
Margo Price, Rolling Stone
It’s steeped in country tradition – she split with her backing band during recording, and recruited a more country-oriented group. She covers Waylon Jennings, while Kris Kristofferson is credited with inspiring ‘Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down’. She
The more traditional sound isn’t as hard-hitting as her previous record. The slow-burning ‘Close to You’, co-written with Jeremy Ivey, her husband and guitarist, is close to her torch song. When Tyler Childers joins her for the duet ‘Love Me Like You Used To’, it sounds like they’re dialling into the 1950s. It’s best when it’s tougher, like on ‘Losing Streak’.
Price’s emphasis on authenticity should earn her plenty of fans.
Kerry Logan
Y3K The Robe
2025
In between his career as a religious studies teacher, Kerry Logan has released 44 albums since 1990. He recently released Y3K: The Robe, the fourth in a series of concept albums. I’ll let him explain:
“Y2K freaked out everyone as the world thought all the computer systems what ‘reset’ at the turn of the year 2000. Y3K (apart from being a super-cool name) is a concept album about my own spiritual ‘reset’, and this album is the ‘sequel’ to my other three previous Y3K offerings”
Kerry Logan, Bandcamp
Kerry plays almost everything on the record – his brother Bobby plays drums. The record gets bogged down on the sludgier songs like ‘Low Tune’ and ‘youneedtosaywhatyouwant’. On a genre that requires a capable vocalist, his voice is sometimes a limitation.
But it’s terrific when Kerry showcases his guitar skills, like on ‘ENFP’ and ‘The Death of Christian Phoenix’. It all comes together on the opening track ‘The Robe’, with a hint of disco in the rhythm guitar, and some funky synth solos.
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Your friend Kerry’s music sounds pretty good.
Cool, he’ll be excited to hear that.
I have to agree with Jeff, that Kerry Logan song sounds neat.
Also great seeing Margo Price! In late August, I featured “Losing Streak” as well from her latest album. I’ve also covered her on a few other previous occasions and dig what I’ve heard thus far.
Margo Price is really great at capturing an authentic country sound there. Still liked her previous album more.
I’m sure Kerry is excited about the positive feedback.
Jens Lekman…It’s loose and tight at the same time. The music is full…and it fits this song. Usually I like a little space in songs to breathe but this arrangement fits this song well.
Margo Price… Damn that is really good! I love the intro with that organ. Song sounds great. I’ve either heard of her from you or Christian.
Kerry Logan… cool song with an understated vocal…I like it. It has some power to it as well.
I think Christian and I have both covered Margo Price before.
Lehman could have fitted right in in the mid-1960s. Kind of a man out of time.