You can’t listen to Peace Or Love in winter, you just can’t. If there were a record that perfectly encapsulates the segue from sunset to starlight, the this is it.
The Norwegian folk-pop duo’s long-awaited fourth album, Peace or Love, is a delight from start to finish.
Yes, some may not get onboard the overall tweeness of it all - it can sometimes overage an over egg pudding, but Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe’s year’s in the wilderness put a little more huff and gruff in the genteel finger plucking and swooning vocals.
Lead single Rocky Trail recalls the piano-led brilliance of Misread (from 2004 album Riot On An Empty Street), while the Feist-assisted “Love Is a Lonely Thing,” feels familiar to those who pressed repeat on “Love Is No Big Truth.”
So, it is no surprise to discover that KoC’s return is more of the same, rather than a reinvention of the wheel. Their default of shy yet knowing desire and vulnerability winds its way to the fore of many of the tracks contained here.
The lyrics read on “Catholic Country”,“The more I know about you/The more I know I want you/The less I care about who/Was there before I found you” and that really stays all you ned to know about Peace Or Love.
There’s nothing here that scales the heights of “I’d Rather Dance With You”, yet “Fever” and “Toxic Girl” skirt very close.
Peace Or Love is, if you will a perfect metaphor for the end (at least the sight of the end) of these trying times. It is that meeting of a long not seen friend and the easy slip back into familiar patterns and habits.
It’s good to have Kings Of Convenience back. If you’re yet to discover them, there’s worse ways to entertain your ears.
Peace Or Love is out now on all formats via EMI.
Kings Of Convenience will play den Atelier on March 22, 2022 tickets here
