Pitchfork

Melbourne's Julian Nation keeps his indie-pop simple, completely forgoing anything extravagent like solos, bridges, and, um, choruses. Clocking in at less than a minute and a half, "Lost Swedish Penpals" (from his 18-minute debut We Are All Writers) describes a short-lived postal relationship through acoustic guitars, beginner's piano, glockenspiel, and Nation's unspeakably fragile bedroom quaver.

Here, Nation borrows the kind of melancholy wordplay perfected by his eternally underrated countrymen the Lucksmiths: "Well, we both had our weaknesses/ Mine was broken promises and yours was broken English." Dude, Jens Lekman speaks English just fine, but he thought you said "Maple Leaves."