Kings of Convenience

Kings of Convenience, "Norwegian folk-popsters."

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More About

• Erlend Oye
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Worklife
• Jobs and Labor

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They're right about the empty street: That's the only place these two knit-wearing, tightly harmonizing, acoustic-guitar-strumming Norwegian folk-popsters could survive a riot, if the soft-shoed ballads and featherweight "rockers" on their third album are any indication. Get past the intrinsic tweeness of their sound -- and of their album cover, which depicts the Kings embroiled in a high-stakes game of, um, chess -- and Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe will seduce you before you've had a chance to snicker. A hipster's Simon & Garfunkel is the hard sell, and it's not one the Kings actively refute: "I'll lose some sales and my boss won't be happy," they croon over finger-picked arpeggios in opener "Homesick," "but I can't stop listening to the sound of two soft voices blended in perfection." That's not their only self-referential trick; in "I'd Rather Dance With You," øye disguises his bookworm looks long enough to allude to his dance-heavy solo album from last year. But then it's back to bookworm business.