Kings Of Convenience ‎– Versus

The Kings of Convenience's QUIET IS THE NEW LOUD a worked over on VERSUS, with decidedly mixed resuilts. Royksopp gets the album off to a good start with their mid-tempo mix of "I Don't Know What I Can Save You From," while Four Tet does their abstract thing on "The Weight of My Words" (with both the vocal and the instrumental versions). "The Girl from Back Then" receives a lounge-y remix courtesy of Riton, but the standout on the album is their collaboration with Erot, "Gold for the Price of Silver," a downtempo track that glimmers with all the precious metals you can think of. Evil Tordivel transforms "Leaning Against the Wall" into a tropical Copacabana-band arrangement. A few of the remixers aren't able to really improve on the originals, so they simply add instruments, like the strings on "Toxic Girl" or the percussion and feedback guitar that drown out everything on Alfie's take on "Failure." That isn't true, however, of Ladytron's mix of "Little Kids," which opts for dark and shimmery new wave. Overall, VERSUS is great companion piece to the album.