The Kings of Convenience have a new record coming out. It's called Riot on an Empty Street, and it contains, at the very least, two lovely songs. Here they are.
The Kings of Convenience - "Homesick". As heralds of the 'new acoustic' movement, as two gentle-voiced fellows with acoustic guitar(s), the Kings of Convenience were inevitably compared to Simon & Garfunkel. Compared, compared, and compared again. While the argument could be made for the band's first two discs, Riot on an Empty Street does not sound like a Simon and Garfunkel album. Erlend Oye's been too busy listening to old (and new) records, folding them together on the decks. The Simon & Garfunkel analogies will keep coming, however, because "Homesick" is the first track on the album and it's the one that all critics will hear, even if they skip the rest in order to make their deadlines. "Homesick" is an unabashed ode to Paul and Art: I recognize it in the vocal harmony, that wonderful familiar interval. I recognize it in the words ("I can't stop listening to the sounds / of two soft voices / blended in perfection / from the reels of this record that I found"). I recognize it in the spirit of the song, the loneliness that leads to progress - the path of a boxer, perhaps, on his way to America. Taking up what you long for. How can something so simple say so much?
The Kings of Convenience - "The Build Up". Twice on the album, the Kings of Convenience are joined by a third voice. And the third voice (hold your breath!) is Leslie Feist. "Know How" is a glad shuffling shrug which doesn't quite get interesting until Leslie joins in, casting a chill with her five-second solo. "The Build Up," however, gives a clearer taste of Leslie's talents. (Clearer like raindrops tumbling over a lake, raindrops dangling on the ends of pine-needles, raindrops flying from the wheels of your bike, that silver black and red.) Astonishingly, Erlend lets Feist end the album, he lets her rising-falling song linger. This is the Kings of Convenience without their strummy crutches, without the network of golden notes. Instead: there's a draft.
The album comes out in the UK on June 21st. Do buy it.
For those of you in seek of yet more advance-leaked music, TTIKTDA's got Polyphonic Spree which, despite the improvement (bigger! more glad! more like the Flaming Lips!) still leaves me flat. I concede that in person I might be blown away (again, see the Lips), but on record I hear only a bunch of huffing and puffing.
Mystery & Misery introduced me to The Fatales, who are a revivifying indie rock band. Yeah Yeah Yeahs + Harvey Danger. Listen to "Where'd You Get Those Shoes".