Lenny Lenny announces debut album ‘The Ballad of Lenny Lenny’
After releasing two successful singles, the bouncing “Tambourine” and the summery “She Only Loves You (In The Summertime)”, Lennert Coorevits is happy to announce he will be releasing a full studio album beginning of next year. While Compact Disk Dummies were tearing up festival stages year after year with their punchy electro-pop-punk, Lennert secretly accumulated a collection of sparse, soulful songs that didn’t fit the Dummies’ all-defining four-to-the-floor beat. With the brothers deciding to take a sabbatical from the band, Lennert saw the right time to focus on his alter ego Lenny Lenny and produce a personal, eclectic and yet highly danceable full-length album: “The Ballad of Lenny Lenny”, set for release on February 26 via V2 Records.
Photo Credit: Alexander Popelier
About the new single “Soft Spot”, which releases today, Lennert explains the following: “It’s the first time I’ve felt somewhat hesitant about releasing a song. Precisely because the lyrics are so close to my skin. The birth of my son turned my life upside down. I’ll never forget the moment I drove home from the hospital in the middle of the night, at ten kilometres per hour, occasionally checking the rear-view mirror to make sure the speed bumps wouldn’t wake him.”
Against the backdrop of a destabilised climate, chaos and genocides, uncertainty and a deep urge to protect also begin to surface. The “soft spot” referred to is a tender place that makes the body vulnerable and, at times, inspires fear.
At the beginning of 2025, excited and nervous, Lennert played a series of demos to Tobie Speleman, producer and mixer for bands such as The Haunted Youth and Dressed Like Boys. Speleman saw the potential in this material, and together they broke free from existing conventions.
The result is striking in its simplicity: eclectic yet controlled, completely free from expectations. Working on this record became a gentle way out for Lennert as the world around him was changing. He is no longer the boy he was in 2012, when he and his brother won Humo’s Rock Rally, a musical contest. There is now a home, a child, a new phase, a new life. In his solo work, the sun seems to shine surprisingly often.
The Ballad of Lenny Lenny isn’t afraid to strip down themes as masculinity, fatherhood and relationships. It’s a trip, and along the way he is more than once nudged forward by his own conscience. “Wake Up, Lenny! Hold On, Lenny!” it echoes in his head. Interludes that give the album its unique flow.
His DIY spirit meant that he initially recorded the demos himself in his studio. He cut and pasted his way towards a new story, drawing inspiration from heroes of the sixties and seventies: Carole King, Paul McCartney, Elton John, as well as Shuggie Otis and Labi Siffre. But he also nods to the present: think of the playfulness of Beck and Childish Gambino or the wonky beats of Kaytranada.
Although he played most instruments himself, Lennert also received some musical reinforcements. David Poltrock re-recorded several synth parts using a vintage Mellotron, Minimoog and Farfisa organ, while Victor Defoort and Klaas De Somer handled bass and drums throughout the album. Luuk Cox contributed a few arrangement ideas at an early stage, and eventually Tobie Speleman mixed and produced the entire album.
