Kings of Convenience Declaration of Dependence [Import]

In the five years since their last record, the duo of Erlend Oye and Erik Glambek Boe have each been busy, Oye with DJ gigs and his other band the Whitest Boy Alive, and Boe with his day job and fighting Clear Channel in their hometown of Bergen, Norway. Getting back into Kings of Convenience mode sounds like it was as easy as putting on a fresh pair of socks. Their third album, DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE, sounds like it could have been recorded at the same session as RIOT ON AN EMPTY STREET; it's just as relaxed, mellow, and dreamy. The pair's voices blend like honey and more honey, each of them possessing vocal chords made of cotton candy. They twine their voices around complex but warmer-than-a-Snuggie harmonies on every song; the comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel still hold up, though by now they really sound most like themselves, and not imitators. This album is sparser than the last; there are no guest vocals and very infrequent extra instruments (strings, piano). It gives the