Kings Of Convenience aren’t kings and I’m not sure how convenient they really are, but their music sure is pretty.
From the intoxicating “Winning A Battle, Losing The War” to the lovelorn “Toxic Girl”, these two nerdy Norwegians sure have a lot to offer. Their delicate voices and delicious harmonies work incredibly well. I think I’m going to tear up. Okay, that is a little bit of sarcasm, but it is really pretty.
The stumbling and mumbling chorus of “Singing Softly To Me” proves that being totally coherent and figurative isn’t necessary when it sounds so sweet. I had to open the booklet to figure out what was being sung (“I didn’t know you then, now did I girl?”). You’d figure it wouldn’t be so hard to figure out, but maybe I’m just daft.
At one point or another I completely expected KOC to break out with “Sound Of Silence”. It’s obvious that they had a good dose of Simon & Garfunkel when they were growing up. KOC can do Travis spot on with their lyrics so comfortably that you could snuggle right into them. The biggest difference is that there is only the sparsest drum here and there. This is an album where acoustic guitars and the tender voices of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe create harmonic bliss.
Lyrically the songs are striking. “The weight of my words/ You can’t feel it anymore” from the track “The Weight Of My Words” is as human as can be. Emotions we know we’ve all felt from both sides of the sting.
There is something graceful yet clumsy about Kings Of Convenience, something that reality has given to all of us. We don’t all just skip through life because at one time or another we feel the bliss, other times the pain. KOC sing us through those feelings without trying to pretend life is more or less watching grass grow. There is something so true about the title Quiet Is The New Loud.
+ charlie craine
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