Electric Roulette (UK) states that the fuzzjangle period is upon us, starting with I Was A King. It’s noisy-as-hell… yet dipped in honey.
Let this LP into your life and you’ll feel sonic sun all up in your earholes. It really is a cracking little album. Buy it, first chance you get.
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MOJO has found some Norwegians with a yen for pre-Britpop noise-pop.
Music Week has found an emerald in a mountain of coal.
Sonic Cathedral releases some absolute gems while those of us of a certain age await a Nineties revival in the next decade.
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Rave Magazine (Brisbane, Australia) is blended by I was a King’s aplomb, shiny ramshackle.
It’s certainly true that frontman Frode Stromstad creates classic, chunky power-pop melodies, but there’s something loose and slightly anarchic about the band’s approach. (…) The combination of three-minute nuggets with brief flashes of experimentation, or potential tour-de-forces stripped down to under one minute, brings to mind both Guided By Voices and Apples In Stereo.
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The Australian musicmagazine The Dwarf has tasted I was a King’s exquisite sweets.
Track three, Golden Years is a definite standout number that bounces around the eardrums with a catchy riff and drawn out lyrical persistency that makes the corners of my mouth smirk both unintentionally and unequivocally.
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Australian TwoThousand acknowledge their weaknesses in I was a King.
We all have our weaknesses. For some it’s a hairy chest, for others a blonde fringe.
Kid yourself that the attraction’s intellectual, emotional, even spiritual; but really, we’re always attracted to the same half dozen traits in different configurations.
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Alternative Media Group in Australia is heading in the same direction as I was a King on a two-way street.
The melodies are striking, so often amiss in this type of music, particularly the nicotine-soaked love-rock of “Step Aside” and the joyous “Breathe”.
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Norman Bleik is Song of the Day at KEXP.
The track “Norman Bleik” is pleasantly distorted, the sort of sonic grit that has you quietly nodding your head, not covering your ears in pain. This track feels dredged from a nostalgic yearning for the fledgling days of the 1990s, but filtered through the always startling pop sensibilities of Scandinavia. It’s no wonder that a roster of talented and well-known musicians agreed to step onboard to bring this project to light.
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Politiken (Denmark) rates I Was A King’s self-titled album to 5 of 6 hearts, and compares the opening number “Still” to flying an old propeller plane.
Read more here in Danish
Austin Town Hall rates I Was A King’s self-titled album to 4 1/2 of 5 stars!
Occasionally the overseas hype makes its way to these Eastern shores, and in those cases it rarely amounts to much. This time, I Was a King, aim to put all that hype to rest, as they have an album of such quality that it’s hard not to immediately fall in love with every single song on the album. (…) Here you have ADHD recorded, perfected, and sold to appease your ears.
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