Track Listing

1. I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Remix) - Royksopp
2. The Weight Of My Words (Remix) - Four Tet
3. The Girl From Back Then (Remix) - Riton
4. Gold For The Price Of Silver (Collaboration) - Erot
5. Winning A Battle, Losing The War (Remix) - Andy Votel
6. Leaning Against The Wall (Remake) - Evil Tordivel
7. Toxic Girl (String Arrangement) - David Whitaker
8. Failure (Remake) - Alfie
9. Little Kids (Remix) - Ladytron
10. Failure (Arrangement) - Kings Of Convenience
11. Leaning Against The Wall (Remix) - Bamboo Soul
12. The Weight Of My Words (Remix) (Instrumental) - Four Tet

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36083 in Music
• Released on: 2001-10-30
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
'Versus' is a remix collection mostly taken from their U.K. single releases and some brand new mixes, including Ladytron, Royksopp, & Andy Votel. This Astralwerks release is available on CD & LP.

Amazon.com
Given that remixers' recourse to acoustica is the next logical link to down-tempo electronica, it's no surprise that the Kings of Convenience's beguiling debut has undergone this treatment. Versus sees the winsome, lovelorn ditties of Quiet is the New Loud reinterpreted by the likes of fellow Norwegians Royksopp (whose lovely remix of "I Don't Know What to Save You From" appeared on the "Failure" single), Four Tet, Ladytron, and Alfie, among others. Apart from Ladytron, who opt for their characteristic warped synth-pop, on the whole the assembled cast gently tweaks the songs, rather than offering any radical reworking of them. Evil Tordivel update "Leaning Against the Wall" with sprightly horns and keyboards, leaving the song less introspective, but still recognizable. Wayward folksters Alfie remake "Failure" (also included on the single), but are less successful, as their skewed lo-fi tends to overbear much of the all-important melody. Riton's remix of "The Girl from Back Then" adds gentle sprinkles of nonchalant, shuffling beats, but the highlight is the "Weight of My Words" remix by Kieran Hebden, a.k.a. Four Tet. As showcased on his glorious Pause album, he melds bubbling electronica with an organic, folky ambience, perfectly demonstrating the premise of Versus. --Suzannah Brown

Customer Reviews

Much better than "Quiet Is the New Loud"!
For the most part, "Versus" is an album of remixes from "Quiet Is the New Loud". But it's actually more than that: it's a step above its parent album. The remixed versions keep you into the album, something that the original tracks were unable to do for the most part. While I still prefer the band's (much folkier-sounding) "Riot on an Empty Street", "Versus" is a pretty good album by the Norwegian duo.

if you feel like stoning
Very good chillout music. Royksopp's rendition of Don't know what I can save you from is reminiscient of the background music of the old kid's computer game "Treasure Cove", which is laidback and lovely. The circus-sounding Leaning against the Wall by Evil Tordivel is fresh and amusing, and Winning a Battle, Losing a War should be heard by anyone who's ever loved someone without being loved in return.

Who wouldn't like this?
I see I'm not the first person who was a little shall-we-say skeptical of the concept. I mean, really. Electronica remixes of acoustic folk lullabyes? Does it get any more gimmicky?

Yea, all signs pointed to "save your money" on this one. But deep down I wanted to believe. I knew that a concept like this really could make for wonderful music, if only it was done right. With taste, with imagination, with respect for the source material -- I mean, it could be really good! Couldn't it?

So, with a little trepidation, I purchased Versus. I bought it used, so as to limit my losses. And what do you know.

It's better than I'd even hoped. My wife loves it too -- we even found that the baby will stop crying when we put it on. She just stares at the speakers with an expression halfway between awestruck and dumbstruck.

We love it so much that we were hesitant to buy the original versions ("Quiet is the New Loud") until just recently. I figured they would seem empty to us. Wrong again. Blown away again. But that's a subject for a different review.

I can go back and forth between this and QitNL without any of that jarring feeling -- you know, like when you hear an old song that your favorite band covered once, and you're so used to the cover that something always seems to be missing, and you can't stop noticing its absence? Well, none of that. It's like each of the artists brings such a new vision to their track that they created a whole new song altogether. Almost all of them, anyway.

Maybe if I'd bought QitNL first it would be different. I don't know. I say, get this one first. It's a little more "hooky".

There is a bit of repetition. Personally, I would have chosen just one of the "Failure" mixes; they're just too similar. Not so with the two versions of "Leaning Against The Wall." They're very different and both fantastic and both fit in well. And Four Tet coming back again at the end? Love it. Can't get enough of that one.

Usually I try to explain "if blah blah, then you'll like this, and if blah blah blah, then you may not." But I don't really know what kind of music fan wouldn't like this disc. I don't know, your mother, maybe. If you see a one-star review ever show up here one day, your mother is suspect.