Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence

In making an album with a limited palette of sounds, you tread a fine line between producing something stark and something monotonous. Whilst Declaration of Dependence is an undeniably well-crafted and pretty collection of songs, I’m not sure on which side of the aforementioned line it sits. Many of the acoustic bossa-nova tracks, such as Power of Not Knowing and Boat Behind drift by (albeit gracefully) without grabbing the listener’s attention. But, then My Ship Isn’t Pretty appears with all the beautiful brevity of a rainbow. Over a fragile backing track, Eirik Boe sings the following two sentences: “Boys oft today write lines on walls in suburbs of cities with no names. Is this destruction, or just quiet protest against loneliness?” Transcribed, it loses its magic, but in the context of the song, it’s a gently arresting moment, and one that justifies seeking out the album to savour it for yourself.