“The well-bred contradict other people, the wise contradict themselves” bellowed 19^th century literary provocateur Oscar Wilde.

Esquire Wilde might cringe in his grave if he finds out that we used his oft-quoted one liner to describe Swedish indie pop’s wonderkid Jens Lekman’s second gig in our sunny island.

Having arrived in Singapore only a couple of hours before the performance, Lekman and Viktor Sjoberg, his supporting keyboardist trooped to The White Rabbit straight from Changi Airport with luggage and sound gear in tow for a rather disconcerting sound check.

Among the throng of  young indie poseurs in scrummy skinnies and a slightly older crowd of musically clued-in yuppies, Lekman and Sjoberg strutted onto the intimate stage at 8:45pm, more than ample time for most folks to get pleasantly inebriated.

In a typically ironic and cryptic fashion, the ingénue muttered to the beaming audience, “This place sounds like 1,000 werewolves dancing in a washing machine.” 

Definitely an advanced apology for the hollow echoes that blemished the night’s set kicking off with the insouciantly melodic “Sipping on the Sweet Nectar,” a chart topper from Night Falls Over Kortedala, his latest album with the dreamy cover art of his hair being cut (apparently it fronts a barbershop in Kerala, India and we seriously wonder if that location would have been a better gig space).

Sjoberg didn’t even bother to conjure anything out of his keyboards, and out of necessity Lekman handed a tambourine to a fan for a little semblance of a rhythm accompaniment to his mordant vocal stylings that did unconsciously sound like a bored Scandinavian Morrissey especially when striking the higher notes in his repertoire of bitterly funny “Postcard to Nina,” “You are the Light,” “Your Arms Around Me” and “Tram #7 to Heaven.” 

A comparison that Lekman wouldn’t be particularly proud as he shared in an earlier phone interview, “I dislike the Morrissey comparisons because the Swedes who are into him are such f*cking assholes and total bullies with their elitism.”   

But marred acoustics and Morrissey references aside, the audience (especially rabid Jens fans) were trying their very best to enjoy the witty poignant songs by humming along and helping out with the choruses of infectious goodness of tunes like  “Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill”.

During the intermission, a visibly jet-lagged but friendly Lekman was chilling out and signing autographs for his fans at the outdoor lounge while Sjoberg spun a choice cut of indie dance nuggets including the essential Lekman remixes.

He resumed his set with two songs at the outdoor area but there wasn’t a marked improvement in acoustic quality.  Although the one-hour set was longer than his brief inaugural gig here, we felt that the night would have been better if the acoustics were right.

The gig might not have been Jen’s most intimate but the folks here still love him.--Patrick Benjamin