Kings Of Convenience
Riot On An Empty Street

THE REVIEW

Today I feel like tranquility, I want to be lulled only by the summer and the soft notes of a record like this one: delicate, intimate, and so innocently young like its authors.
It's summer, but it's not the crowded season on the coast: it's the summer of a morning walk in the woods behind the house, it's the summer of an evening stroll or a scuffle (or collutazione=Riot) in the middle of a deserted road.
Deserted road, yet filled with the intense scent of the '70s (Love Is No Big Truth, of South America (Misread, a wonderful single or Live Song) or simply the sense of loss that a Scandinavian landscape can evoke (Cayman Islands).

Everything seems to be pure magic in the unfolding of a highly successful comedy among acoustic guitars, strings, soft voices, and some brass appearances: the success of the show is guaranteed whether the audience watches it sitting on a rock (Homesick), at the counter of a nightclub (I'd Rather Dance With You), or simply at the head of their emotions swallowed by the armchair at home.

With eyes half-closed, it almost seems possible to recognize some familiar voices (Simon & Garfunkel above all in Surprise Ice) forgetting for a moment that the authors of these twelve tracks are two shy boys from Northern Europe with unlikely names more fitting for Tolkien characters than musicians.

Space-time perdition, crepuscular catharsis, it almost feels like reliving the same emotions experienced a few years ago after listening to the record of another duo called Turin Brakes: back then, I was amazed by their skill, just like today, a beautiful summer day.