Zee Kings of Convience

Those crazy kids from Norway have blown my mind. The first up in no chronological order is 2004's Riot on an Empty Street.

This stuff is true low-fi. All acoustic, except maybe two songs, the quiet chords are only magnified by the almost-whisper of the singer and his hearty lyrics. Every once in ahwile additional strings are brought in, but the album is mostly carried on their melodies. Do a lot of them sound the same? To an extent, yeah, they did to me. I've only had the album for about two weeks, so perhaps it will grow on me more.

Their first CD I listened to had a lot of the above, however, I posted tracks that branched from that mold on here. This album had a few tracks where they decided to pick up tempo and experiment with faster beats and percussion. I especially picked "Sorry or Please" because it included a great piano bit. For the more Nick Drake-ish stuff, it'll be up tommorrow with "quiet is the new loud".

Riot on an Empty Street
Sorry or Please
Love is no Big Truth
Homesick
Surprise Ice

Buy the CD
The band's site