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Hear Jens Lekman Inquire After a Dead Bird in ‘Regarding a Package’

Jens Lekman 'Regarding a Package' Esopus Dead Bird

Swedish songster Jens Lekman has a knack for peppering his songs with intimate, quirky detail, so it should come as no big surprise that his fans like to return the favor by mailing him quirky, intimate things like food, artwork, fluids, bottled air, and, um, dead animals. His new song “Regarding a Package” is inspired by one such experience.

On his website, Lekman explains that during a stint living in Melbourne, some fans managed to track down his address and send him oddities. While he never actually saw the bird-in-a-baggie that they mailed him, he confirmed its existence with Australian customs, who’d quarantined the thing for reasons that should seem pretty sensible to most. Lekman notes that he thought at the time, “That’s not really a story worth a song,” but he had a change of heart when arts and culture quarterly Esopus hit him up to contribute to a compilation they’re working on. The theme: “Customer Service.”

As Pitchfork points out, Dirty Beaches, Richard Swift, Black Pus, and Cakes Da Killa are also among those writing songs for the unusual set, to be included in the magazine’s May issue. Preview the collection with Lekman’s “Regarding a Package” below.