Kings Of Convenience - Cayman Islands

Artist: Kings Of Convenience

Song: Cayman Islands

Album: Riot On An Empty Street (2004)

Kings of Convenience are an indie folk-pop duo from Bergen, Norway. Consisting of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, the musical group is known for their delicate tunes, calming voices, and intricate and subtle guitar melodies. Øye and Bøe both compose and sing the songs.

Their second album, 'Riot On An Empty Street' picks up where 'Quiet Is The New Loud' left off. Recorded over the last six months in Bergen, with periodic visits from ex-patriot Erlend - Riot contains more complex arrangements tWith You', 'Know How,' 'Love Is No Big Truth' or first single 'Misread', every track sounds like an old friend coming home to you.

"It's quite style schizophrenic," adds Eirik "We're each inspired by different things so it can be a little confusing, but that seems to be a modern phenomenon, people don't know what genre to put themselves in."

"I'm looking forward to everyone saying it's not as good as the first album," laughs Erlend, "It's funny because two of the songs are from 1998, so it's us, covering us from five years ago," he adds.

The Kings were joined in the studio by hotly tipped Canadian songstress Feist, who appears on two of the albums twelve tracks, the bossa-fuelled 'Know How' where she assists Eirik, and the album's closing track 'The Build Up'- where she duets with Erlend in what is one of the Kings' most stark and beautifully emotive tracks, a rare moment captured in time. Both were big fans of her much-fabled "Red Demos" and she melds perfectly amidst them, bringing an air of added suspense and emotion and of course her majestic voice. "Her voice is amazing", gushes Erlend, "I'm very proud of the 'Build Up', for the first time ever we managed to do something spontaneous, Feist wrote the words an hour before she sung them, and it doesn't sound like anything else we've ever done."

So there you have it. Kings Of Convenience - 2004. A therapist and a superstar singing DJ, an odd couple, but still the best (old) new acoustic band in the world. 'Riot On An Empty Street,' forms their very own republic of two, principality of Eirik and Erlend. A great place to visit again and again.

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Through the alleyways
To cool off in the shadows
Then into the street
Following the water
There's a bearded man
Paddling in his canoe
Looks as if he has
Come all the way from the Cayman Islands

These canals, it seems
They all go in circles
Places look the same,
And we're the only difference
The wind is in your hair
It's covering my view
I'm holding on to you
On a bike we've hired until tomorrow

If only they could see
If only they had been here
They would understand
How someone could have chosen
To go the length I've gone
To spend just one day riding
Holding on to you
I never thought it would be this clear

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