Top Chef blogging is going to be preempted by Jens Lekman blogging, as I skipped episode 4 to see... yeah. Jens Lekman is a rare talent: a first-rate songwriter with a beautiful voice; an ensemble leader who enjoys arranging his music; an ironist with the ability to calibrate precisely the right amount of melodrama. His indie-pop isn't fey or twee. He puts on a stunningly good (and choreographed!) performance. How is any of this possible?

My mother loves Jackson Browne. She drove four hours on Saturday, each way, to see him perform in Mystic, Connecticut. I have never, my whole life long, understood my mother's insane devotion to him. Nor, for that matter, do I get his mellow-yellow contemporaries like Carole King or James Taylor. But tonight at the Jens Lekman show I wondered if he's the contemporary Jackson Browne. Perhaps with a broader musical palette and reference base, but with the same discontent beneath the sweetness.

Also, you learn something new every day. Today I learned that women love songs about haircuts, or at least Jens Lekman songs about haircuts.

Update: Yes, this post has been corrected for an embarrassing misspelling. This might be what it feels like when girls spot their white pants.