POINT-COUNTERPOINT - LEKMAN, JENS.

Genius? Or is this just how the Swedes are built? Our paralegals examine the evidence.

POINT. Jens Lekman is a boy wonder. Contradicts the notion that "they don't write 'em like they used to." Lekman takes a few of old toys he found laying around the house - easy-listening's conventions, pop's bounce, and his own nostalgic wit - winds them up, points them in the direction of each other, and we all get to watch them collide. He proves equally competent writing songs for guitar ("I Saw Her At The Anti War Demonstration," also featuring a little bit 'o strings), for keys ("If You Ever Need A Stranger"), and for both (the utterly incredible "Black Cab").

COUNTERPOINT. Sweden is a nation of boy wonders. They have about nine million people living there now, making it a bit smaller than the state of Michigan. It's commonly said that they rank 3rd in the export of music, behind the US and the UK. Per capita the statistics must be disgusting. Sweden practically invented modern American pop music in absentia (see: ABBA). Listen to "I Saw The Sign" right now, I dare you. Is it the hyperneutrality that bores them into writing all them hooks in a basement? Or is it their socially-engineered problem-vacuum of a nation? I don't know, but to say Jens is an exception among Swedes would be off the mark.

No matter where you fall on that particular issue, I think you'll agree that Jens Lekman stopping in Rochester is cause for celebration. You can catch him at the Bug Jar on July 23 for $8, a steal of a show. Secretly Canadian labelmate Frida Hyvonen will open.