Erlend Øye - La Prima Estate (now with added video)

Erlend Øye, one half of the Norwegian duo Kings Of Convenience, has moved to the town of Siracusa on the wonderful Italian island of Sicily. Not only is he about to learn the language, as evidenced on his first Italian-language solo single "La Prima Estate", he has also dipped into a treasure trove of old Mediterranean pop music of the 60's and 70's and recorded what sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a cocktail party in San Remo or a similar place sometime in the 1960's. I posted the song a few weeks ago, and now the video has been completed, a wonderfully happy-looking little film with Øye singing and playing guitar, and a score of people dancing and jumping about and smiling under the Sicilian sun. This whole thing, both the song and the video, is happiness distilled into four minutes of gorgeous pop music, one of the best songs I've heard all year (and it's been a VERY good year so far). Some might call it cheesy, I just call it wonderful.

Watch and listen