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Kings of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street "I'll lose some sales and my boss won't be happy, but I can't stop listening to the sound...of two soft voices, blended in perfection, from the reels of this record I have found."
These are the first words you hear from two soft voices, blended in perfection, on this frankly amazing new record from Kings Of Convenience. And regardless of whether you're in sales, when you listen to it your mind will be floating away from the here and now. As to which two voices they've been listening to, the Simon and Garfunkel inflections in the sumptuous melody soon give it away. Of course, Simon and Garfunkel comparisons are still levelled at any duo that gently strum and pluck their acoustic guitars, but the fact remains that the magic that they sometimes committed to tape is not easy to match.
Not that Kings of Convenience are imitating the famous duo. Far from it. The opening track is a subtle homage, rather than a formulaic reinterpretation. The important thing is those amazing voices. Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, from Norway, if you hadn't guessed, link together musically like caramel and chocolate. Whether you can really judge an album on its goosebump-inducing quotient or not, Riot On An Empty Street is an emotive affair. It's never melodramatic, but the warmth it emanates so effortlessly at times is totally disarming.
Riot On An Empty Street is an apt description of the other-worldliness that Kings Of Convenience bathe the listener in. Just as their debut from 2001, Quiet Is The New Loud, nudged a cheeky elbow in the direction of the sub-par 'chill-out' compilations popping up everywhere, the new album is also in a league of its own.
The brilliant twinned guitar work that underpins the voices is also hugely important. Again, you can drift off without ever needing to analyse it, but the precision and tenacity is exemplary. Simple piano lines ripple in and out at key points, as does a 'cello, but the guitars are the backbone, both rhythmically and melodically.
It's true that the album is rather samey, and if the quality wasn't so good throughout, this might be a problem. Luckily, a few well-timed variations punctuate the experience. Delicious female vocals are added to tracks five and thirteen by the lovely Feist. She's someone you'll be hearing a lot more about on her own merits in the near future, but her sharper delivery balances the rounder male vocals perfectly. The other variation is one of tempo, where I'd Rather Dance With You elevates the album from an elegiac daydream to a joyful celebration at just the right time.
Where countless albums peter out before the mid-way point, the high point of Riot On An Empty Street actually comes on the penultimate track. Gold In The Air Of Summer is a brilliantly subtle piece of songwriting, gathering weight like the air before a summer storm. Then, as the track closes with the intertwined voices singing; "You'll shine like gold in the air of summer" over and over, you can almost feel the rehydrated trees sighing with relief in the wake of a downpour. It's a special moment at the end of an album that had already enveloped you before the second track.
Of course, how you feel about Kings of Convenience will depend a great deal on how you feel about acoustic guitar duos. It might not be cool. It's not big or clever. But it's perfect unto itself, and surely that's all you can ever ask of anything.
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