Kings of Convenience

[Grateful Heart]

AMG Review by Tim DiGravina

Under an album title that practically became a mantra for the European music press, Kings of Convenience display everything that is right and everything that is wrong with the new acoustic movement. The duo employs their guitars to create touching ballads at will, but they forget to vary their pace at times. Quiet Is the New Loud is immeasurably gentle. Comparing the band to Belle and Sebastian and Nick Drake, as so many music critics are prone to do, isn't quite right. It's nearly impossible to find a hint of irony in the music of Kings of Convenience, whereas Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch seems to have his tongue firmly planted in cheek. Drake sought the mystical and natural elements of his short life to create his art. Kings of Convenience seem to merely seek calm moods and discuss relationships. Acoustic guitars are constantly rolling and a minimal piano plucks out delicate notes. The most interesting songs tend to be those where the band picks up their pace. "I Don't Know What I Can Save You From" is quite beautiful, as Erik Glambek Boe's vocals take on a charged immediacy. The song is reminiscent of the more pop-oriented sound Ben and Jason achieved on their excellent Emoticons album. "Parallel Lines" sounds more than a little like a slowed-down, sadder take on Morrissey's "Seasick, Yet Still Docked." If Quiet Is the New Loud had a quicker pulse, at least on a few more tracks, it would have been more successful. Instead, the album makes for an enticing, somewhat over-dour rainy day mood-piece.

 

[Codreanu]

Parallel Lines

What's the immaterial substance
that envelopes two,
that one perceives as hunger
and the other as food.
I wake in tangled covers,
to a sash of snow,
you dream in a cartoon garden,
I could never know.
Innocent imitation,
of how it could be,
if when the music ended,
you did not retreat.
In my imagination,
you are cast in gold,
your image a compensation for me to hold.
Parallel lines, move so fast,
toward the same point,
infinity is as near as it is far.
Parallel lines, move so fast,
toward the same point,
infinity is as near as it is far.

 

[Uncleskinny]

> AMG Review by Tim DiGravina

> Under an album title that practically became a mantra for the European
> music press, Kings of Convenience display everything that is right and
> everything that is wrong with the new acoustic movement. The duo employs
> their guitars to create touching ballads at will, but they forget to vary
> their pace at times. Quiet Is the New Loud is immeasurably gentle.
> Comparing the band to Belle and Sebastian and Nick Drake, as so many music
> critics are prone to do, isn't quite right. It's nearly impossible to find
> a hint of irony in the music of Kings of Convenience, whereas Belle and
> Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch seems to have his tongue firmly planted in
> cheek. Drake sought the mystical and natural elements of his short life to
> create his art. Kings of Convenience seem to merely seek calm moods and
> discuss relationships. Acoustic guitars are constantly rolling and a
> minimal piano plucks out delicate notes. The most interesting songs tend
> to be those where the band picks up their pace. "I Don't Know What I
> Can Save You From" is quite beautiful, as Erik Glambek Boe's vocals
> take on a charged immediacy. The song is reminiscent of the more
> pop-oriented sound Ben and Jason achieved on their excellent Emoticons
> album. "Parallel Lines" sounds more than a little like a
> slowed-down, sadder take on Morrissey's "Seasick, Yet Still
> Docked." If Quiet Is the New Loud had a quicker pulse, at least on a
> few more tracks, it would have been more successful. Instead, the album
> makes for an enticing, somewhat over-dour rainy day mood-piece.

It's a beautiful album. Summer On The Westhill and Winning The Battle, Losing The War just flow through you. If you're lucky enough to own the single version of Toxic Girl, you can hear the duo covering Badly Drawn Boy's Once Around The Block - recorded, as they say, in a "...reverbful stairwell." Lovely.

Sk.