PeeP on PoP- I Was a King

I Was a King- Old Friends (Sounds Familyre- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

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Norway’s Frode Strømstad and band, I Was a King, have been making music for about five years, and their first two albums, and now Old Friends have suffered from a lack of consistency, which has been especially tough on a true-blue pop fan like myself. Strømstad is such an obviously gifted songwriter and charismatic singer, that when his reach exceeds his grasp, it is a big disappointment. On Old Friends, the band has brought their horn section to the fore, on many of the tracks, and it frequently obscures, if not outright tramples all over the unctuous, organic hooks. I am not one to condemn a band for having ambition and a desire to experiment, it’s just that all the horn crescendos, overly busy drumming, and mid-song noise freakouts detract rather than add to the whole of too many of the songs.

On the band’s 2009 self titled album, Strømstad wrote three or four great songs, another seven or so songs worth of piano ballad diversions, and experimental song fragments, and one of the greatest songs of the last 25 years, an absolute masterpiece, his ode to indie-pop demigods Teenage Fanclub, ‘Norman Bleik’. It’s the perfect pop song, and Old Friend’s album closer, ‘Old Friends’ is it’s near equal. ‘Old Friends’ is relatively sedate (by the album’s standards)folk-pop jam that ends the album on such a heartsick, simple, blue note that it creates stark contrast between the rest of the album’s crowded arrangements, and makes the case for a stripped down sound that would ultimately let the songwriting shine through and allow the band to make the classic album they might just have in ‘em.

For Fans of: Lilys, Olivia Tremor Control, Flaming Lips