Correspondence

Throughout 2018, Swedish singer/songwriters Jens Lekman and Annika Norlin sent each other songs back and forth almost like sonic letters, documenting the project on an unassuming website. At the end of the year, the two artists had accrued 12 songs and released the results of their conceptual project under the fitting title Correspondence. Both Lekman and Norlin had already spent lengthy careers developing their specific songwriting styles, and Correspondence pushes already observant and astute perspectives to even more personal places. Framed as letters sent between the two artists, theres an intimacy to these songs that verges on feeling voyeuristic, especially when many of the lyrics begin with the singers directly addressing one another. The album begins with Lekmans Who Really Needs Who, a gentle folk song with lyrics written like a letter being penned on the first day of a new year. Norlin replies with the Showering in Public, a diaristic look at her history of anxiety connected to gyms, schools, and other public spaces. The arrangements throughout Correspondence are simple, with acoustic instruments fleshed out only by string overdubs. Both singers use their songwriting letters as avenues to explore tangential memories or express worry about the current state of their lives. Norlins Joining a Cult is especially melodic and catchy while overflowing with self-analyzing lyrics, and Lekmans reply, Revenge of the Nerds, relates to the need for belonging. Instead of a spiritual cult, however, he remembers the clique of social outcasts he grew up with and imagines them as a type of cult he could fit in with. As the album goes on, theres a deepened sense that both singers have forgotten that their songs to each other might be heard by anyone else. The tone of the songs corresponds with the times of year theyre written in, growing colder and more depressive as the seasons change around them. Norlins softly surreal Election Day comes tenth in the track list, representing the month of October and diving deep into lyrics of everyday frustrations and isolation. Correspondence is an interesting exercise, and one that finds both songwriters achieving more intricate and emotionally raw results than usual. At times its hard not to feel like youre eavesdropping on a personal conversation in the form of the unguarded and occasionally painful songs, but as Correspondence takes shape, it becomes clear that feeling is the entire point. ~ Fred Thomas