“Stay Out of Trouble” by Kings of Convenience, Monday, November 7, 2022

You can put Simon and Garfunkel in a playlist alongside most alternative and acoustic music and it fits perfectly. Yes, music production has come a long way since those early recordings, but somehow the duo’s harmonies, acoustic guitars, and musical counterpoints hold up in ways that many Beatles and Led Zeppelin recordings separate themselves from modern rock. Simon and Garfunkel parted ways years ago, but they have inspired countless indie folk groups in ways that separately Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel would have never impacted the world.

TRY NOT TO MISS ME TOO MUCH. Kings of Convenience is a Norwegian folk duo that sound like a modern day Simon and Garfunkel. The Norwegian duo consists of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe. Born in the same year (1975) and classmates growing up, Kings of Convenience formed after the duo’s band Skog had parted with two other members. After playing festivals in Europe, the group released their debut album in Quiet Is the New Loud on the American label Kindercore. Although Øye and Bøe’s native language is Norwegian, the duo sings all of their songs in English. The artwork on the album features Eirik embracing his girlfriend at the time, a woman who looks like Liv Tyler, with Erlend awkwardly onlooking the situation. The duo released their follow up in 2006, Riot on an Empty Street. On the album artwork for Riot, the girlfriend again appears; however, all three are separated. The girlfriend is looking provocatively at Erlend who is looking back at her while he sits in front of a chessboard. Eirik, sitting across from Erlend, looks into the camera. The album artwork leaves listeners with questions about the group’s dynamic—are they a duo or a trio? What’s going on with the Yoko Ono situation? Riot on an Empty Street addresses breakups and moving on. In “Stay Out of Trouble” the lyrics liken a breakup to a cold walk home.

I WISH I HAD YOUR SCARF STILL. Kings of Convenience followed up their 2006 record with 2009’s Declaration of Dependence. Eirik’s ex-girlfriend does not appear on the cover art for the band’s third LP, but instead we see the duo on an island vacation, Eirik shirtless playing an acoustic guitar and Erlend siting with a chessboard beside him. Then the duo went on a lengthy hiatus until 2019, when they started writing and recording last year’s Peace or Love. The album cover features the duo sitting on a sofa, again playing a game of chess. During the duo’s hiatus, Eirik worked on other music, fronting the band The Whitest Boy Alive. There is a visual artistic theme running throughout the albums that probably parallels with the groups sound. I just noticed the artwork connection today. I have only listened to Riot on an Empty Street a few times and none of their other albums, and I’m delighted to have discovered a focus for my future listening with this group. It’s certainly not the best music criticism, but I think that I will have a deeper understanding of the group when I write about them next time.

Read the lyrics on Genius.