Jens Lekman is back with a new song, "Wedding in Leipzig," from his upcoming album Songs For Other People's Weddings, arriving September 12 on Secretly Canadian. At nearly 10 minutes long, it's more than just a single, it's a whole story set to music.

Lekman says the song kept growing as he wrote it, at one point stretching to 20 minutes before he cut it down. Inspired partly by Lou Reed's Street Hassle, it follows a character named J, a wedding singer heading to a gig in Leipzig. Once there, he's placed at the singles table, surrounded by strangers with their own quirks and lonely moments. As the night goes on, their stories make him think about his own relationship with solitude. The music shifts and changes like chapters in a book. Soft strings, gentle keys and subtle rhythms carry Lekman's warm vocals.

The album it's part of is tied to a new book of the same name that Lekman co-wrote with author David Levithan. Both the book and album follow J's work as a wedding singer, a role Lekman himself once filled after fans invited him to sing at their weddings.To celebrate the release, Lekman will head out on a North American tour starting November 8, with shows in cities like Brooklyn, Los Angeles and San Francisco.