Kings Of Convenience – Quiet Is The New Loud

About seven years ago or so an old friend gave me a cassette of a Jim O'Rourke album thinking it to be to my taste. Unfortunately that wasn't so, but out of curiosity I flipped the unmarked tape and started playing the other side. My ears instantly pricked up at the delicate and intricate acoustic stylings and sensitive vocals, and by the end of track two I was completely hooked.

My first thoughts were that it was perhaps some undiscovered/obscure act from the 70's (there was nothing in the production to suggest otherwise), so I was most surprised to discover that this was very much a contemporary recording, as by that time I was totally despairing that popular music had anything fresh or different to offer. Sure, it has shades of Nick Drake, Simon and Garfunkel, and Crosby Stills & Nash about it (which isn't a bad thing of course), but unlike said artists, in my view these guys' output is consistently listenable with their own unique spin (that perhaps comes through emanating from a part of the world not renowned for its musical output).

There are very few albums I've heard that I can justify listening to from beginning to end without skipping tracks, but this is one of them, or at least the nearest it gets for me (perhaps one or two songs could have been developed a bit more, but I'm a hard person to please). Highlights range from the comparatively rhythmically upbeat "Toxic Girl" to the introspective picking of "The Weight Of My Words", but the wonderful conclusion is a masterful triptych that should be heard as programmed. Smouldering, wistful, melancholic, elegiac - describe it how you like but as far as acoustic pop is concerned in my opinion it doesn't get much better than this.

Absolutely gorgeous. Though the Kings of Convenience's first album is not "electronic" in the strictest sense (or in any sense), there's still no denying the utter beauty of this album. The first track on the album, "Winning a Battle, Losing the War," is my favorite, full of shimmering guitars and pensive lyrics; the track doesn't explodes as much as it blossoms right at the end. "Singing Softly to Me" throws in some trumpet to emphasize the call-and-response of the song, while "I Don't Know What I Can Save You From" adds a mournful cello towards the end, as if underlining the futility of the situation. The haunting melodies and the powerful lyrics get under your skin and stick in your head. An underlying melancholy lies at the heart of some of the outstanding tracks like "The Weight of My Words," "Little Kids," and the powerful closing tracks, "The enger" and "Parallel Lines." The album titles says it all: QUIET IS THE NEW LOUD.