Kings Of Convenience

★★★

Peace Or Love EMI. CD/DL/LP

Softly spoken Norwegian duo back with first LP in 12 years.

Released in the UK on the same day as The Strokes’ first EP The Modern Age, Kings Of Convenience’s 2001 debut album Quiet Is The New

Loud stood firm amid the oncoming NYC rush-hour, Bergen’s own Simon And Garfunkel starting their own unassuming acoustic movement. The slyly titled Peace Or

Love is Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe’s first album since 2009’s Declaration Of

Dependence, but their gift for hand-turned melancholy hasn’t blunted with time: Catholic Country and Rumours are locket-sized short stories, while the wistfulness of Fever and Angel is measured to the last millimetre. There are moments when you can almost hear the gurgle of a coffee machine in the background, but Peace Or Love is sophisticated without being easy, a quiet storm all of its own.