September 27, 2004

{ Kings Of Convenience Riot On An Empty Street }

I'm a sucker for soft, spacey melodies with lots of vocal harmonizing, so when I first popped in this CD I was instantly satisfied. I've only recently come to know this Norweigan duo from Erlend Oye's solo album "Unrest" and a King's remix album titled "Versus." ROAES is filled with stripped down acoustic guitar sounds and sorrowful violins to poppy, folk-like tunes. It begins with "Homesick," a combination of stripped down guitar and poppy folk and then eases into "Misread" which is a fun track that's almost like a Mambo or Rumba. (I'm not too good at identifying dance music, Bossanova maybe?) The album continues in this way conveying love and lost love, simplicity and warmth. Guest vocalist Leslie Feist (Broken Social Scene) contributes to track five titled "Know-How" and track twelve, "The Build-Up," a personal favorite. "The Build Up" does just that; it starts out with simply a slow, slow acoustic guitar and one voice and then quite effectively adds harmony. But it's not until halfway through the song when Feist comes in solo that I am mesmerized by a voice that's hard to rival in style and beauty. There are very few female vocalists that sound as good as she does on this particular song. This album is A-OK. Contributed by: Stacy Broce

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By Alan Smithee in Music | Comments: