“How We Met, the Long Version”
In 1983, 17-year-old Harlem singer Jackie Stoudemire released a compelling 12” that few people heard. Fitting to its undeniable groove, the song was called simply “Dancing,” and it arrived via the obscure late disco/proto hip-hop label Tap Records. Naturally, the professional crate-diggers over at the Numero Group unearthed and shone a light on the uptown NYC label nearly a decade ago now, which is perhaps how “Dancing” reached indie-pop observationalist Jens Lekman. Tucked within Lekman’s “postcards” experiment, in which he wrote and released a new song every week throughout 2015, was a loose number where he essentially plays over “Dancing.” It was a promising nugget, but still felt a little out of place. He doesn’t fully integrate himself into the…