Black cab, yellow cab

Why so silent, Jens? We’re starting to take it personally. Droll, baritone singer/songwriter Jens Lekman has spent the past few years hopscotching the globe, casting off from his native Gothenburg, Sweden, to the warmer if inexplicable shores of Australia; he’s remained pretty quiet down under, and has deprived us so far of a follow-up to 2007’s beautifully esoteric, shrewd yet sincere Night Falls Over Kortedala. (If you saw Drew Barrymore’s equally twee-leaning directorial debut Whip It!, you’ll recognize the album’s “Your Arms Around Me” from the pool shenanigans scene.) Lekman gives Kanye West a run for his money in how many obscure samples he can alchemize into one song; his swooning, chamber-leaning folk-pop has proven a succession of divine experiments. So what’s he been up to lately? Find out in his only two East Coast shows in as many years.

Thu., Dec. 9, 8 p.m.; Fri., Dec. 10, 8 p.m., 2010