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Quiet
Is The New Loud is the new album by Norwegian duo the Kings
of Convenience. Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe play their
acoustic guitars softly and sing with voices barely above a
whisper. Additional instruments are used to complement the spare
songs, like the opening trumpet call on “Sing Softly To
Me” or piano twinklings on “The Girl From Back Then”.
There is something to be said about the meek inheriting the
earth.
I must be getting older. I listen to quieter music and loud
music quietly. But the day is currently set up so that music
can only be listened to in those dreaming times of early morning
or late at night. The Kings of Convenience have been compared
to Simon and Garfunkel, but their sound also recalls North Marine
Drive by Ben Watt (prior to Everything But The Girl). Watt's
album is a jazzy acoustic guitar affair with some songs (“Waiting
Like Mad”) featuring a saxophone break. Sun washed memories
creep through the songs from picnics on “On Box Hill”
to exploring rocky ruins on “North Marine Drive”.
The finale is a cover of Bob Dylan's “You'll Make Me Lonesome
When You Go”, a resignation to loneliness. A few years
later, Watt with Tracey Thorn as Everything But The Girl released
Eden with a more full-on jazz approach (and another decade
on became house and drum and bass darlings).
Belle and Sebastian could probably be blamed for this (considering
blame needs to be assigned). They use soft dynamics to build
into the song, as on "The State I Am In" or "I
Fought In A War". But that band has never been afraid to
turn up the volume. Perhaps I am just curious as to whether
the Kings of Convenience could keep the specialty of their band
if they were to turn electric. Dylan did it at Newport.
So where are the wild young ways with quiet music? Oh, it is
there, but it’s the other parts--the waking and the blinking
in the morning and the nodding off late at night. Life is not
all racing like a speeding car down the interstate. There are
other moments to talk about.
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