I Was a King

Those who flocked to Norwegian fuzz-janglers I Was a King's self-titled album and its early Teenage Fanclub qualities will find the group's follow-up frustratingly familiar. Like the Glaswegian power-poppers they're often compared to, I Was a King have ditched their fuzz boxes and cleaned up their music to create a lean indie pop sound filled with brilliant boy-girl minor-key harmonies. But in excising the distortion, the band have lost a bit of the charm that made their last record such a satisfying find. That's not to say that this record isn't any good, the band's songwriting has only improved and space that was once the domain of feedback and noise is now filled with horns, percussion and even a banjo while still maintaining a wall-of-sound quality to each song's biggest moments. Old Friends might require an extra listen or two, but it's more than worthy of your patience.