Rating: 8/10
I recently called Caitlyn Smith’s debut a benchmark of vocal ability–and this latest record by Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, known collectively as First aid Kit, might just be the benchmark of harmony, and how to express lyrics already so potent in even deeper ways with just the right chords and dissonance. Similar to the Secret Sisters, these siblings have an uncanny ability to bring out that forgotten element of music and make harmony one of the key factors of their musical expression. Melody and vocal ability are not the only musical elements being thrown out the window in the age of the song, and duos like these are necessary to help remind us of the dying art and great importance of harmony.
So take all the harmonic nuances and chilling chords of a Secret Sisters record, but add much more variation in style. The Secret Sister’s’ latest record was minimalist, allowing their vocals and harmony to be the main focus. First Aid Kit’s approach is to showcase their incredible singing with backdrops of folk/Americana, (“Fireworks,” “Ruins,”) pop, (“Rebel Heart,” “It’s a Shame,”) and stone cold country (“Postcard.”) IN this way, the production is varied and interesting and only serves to elevate the sister’s talent and prove they can excel at more than one style. It’s also what might hold them at arm’s length from traditionalists and more mainstream fans alike, but rather than their sound feeling like it can’t make up its mind, it feels defined. Far more than many, First aid Kit have, for the most part, a distinct handle on how best to produce a particular song to let that song live up to its full potential and resonate with its listeners.
Then we add to all of this all the complex and heightened emotions of a breakup record, triggered by Klara’s own recent split, and this record gets a touch of the same restlessness and self-discovery which marked Lilly Hiatt’s latest album, Trinity Lane. Similar to that record, this First aid Kit release largely captures a moment in time and all the various emotions sparked by that moment. There’s a sense of loss on some songs, regret on others, and a thread of hope running through the entire album that connects the whole thing and makes it cohesive, regardless of the varying styles and moods.
It’s hard to single out individual songs from this project because the whole thing tells its own story and takes a complete journey, contributing more as a finished product than as the sum of separate songs. Certainly the most country offering here is the charming, shuffling “Postcard,” which makes great use of the piano, an instrument I’d have liked to have found more on this album after hearing its effect on this song. It’s hard to question the ever-building five-minute opener, “Rebel Heart,” either, although this one does decidedly lean more towards the folk pop side of things. There’s vulnerability on “Fireworks,” reflection on “My Wild Sweet Love,” and forward-thinking resolve on “It’s a Shame.” It all works together and serves a purpose, and really, for the first eight tracks of this ten-track journey, there is no measurable misstep.
It does end on a bit of a whimper, however, at least compared to the extremely high bar the sisters set for themselves earlier, especially across the first half of this record. “Hem of her Dress” is the glaring exception to their smart production choices, bursting forth into some sort of loud, boisterous, almost mariachi ending that completely takes away from the thoughtful lyrics of the song and does not match with the acoustic feel at the beginning. The closer, on the other hand, called “Nothing Has to be True,” is very smart sonically but doesn’t carry as much weight lyrically as some of the other material here. Maybe it’s just the standards to which I’m holding this talented group, but it definitely seems like First Aid Kit end this record at a decidedly lower point than the one at which it started. That’s not to take away too much from a great album, but honestly, halfway through this release, I thought we might be looking at the first 10/10 of the year.
And that’s mostly what you should take away from this review, that a good portion of this album is not just good or even great; rather, a good portion of this album is flawless. The production is interesting and tasteful, the writing is smart both melodically and lyrically, and the harmonies are stellar. I mentioned that some people might not get this group, people on both sides of the divide, but perhaps a better way to view First Aid Kit is that they’ve got something to offer everyone, and all of it is quality music of substance. For this listener, a lot of it happens to work, but if your tastes are stricter, maybe you’ll gravitate solely toward the more traditional “Postcard” or the more modern “Rebel Heart.” Whatever your natural inclination, I encourage you to give these sisters and this album a listen; talent and good music cross all genre lines.
Can’t believe I haven’t seen this site until now.
Thanks for this review it was both well thought out and comprehensive. You’re really good at it. The only other reviewer that compares to you is Trigger at Save Country Music…
Have you made a review of Margo Price’s “All American Made” to? Love that album..
About this review:
I agree that the last two songs is’nt as good as the others. But that said, I really like the lyrics on “The Hem of Her Dress” but not that singalong at the end. But here is what Klara had to say about the song:
(From: https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/01/first-aid-kit-ruins-stream-track-by-track/)
“This song was written by me (Klara) very quickly. The lyrics are almost word for word how they came out in the spur of the moment. Every song on the album has its own take on heartbreak. In this song there’s more self-awareness, a distance to everything that has happened. There’s almost a sense of irony in singing “So here we go again” and “Oh, I guess that’s the way it goes”… We wanted to achieve that feeling in the arrangement too, so we decided to make it a little rougher than the other songs. We’d been listening to Neutral Milk Hotel a lot and wanted to capture that kind of rawness. The choir at the end consists of everyone in the band, plus our mom and little brother, singing at the top of their lungs. We’re also proud to say the amazing Laura Veirs is also in there singing. It’s sort of saying – “Hey, perhaps it’ll all go to hell but, fuck it, let’s just sing!””
But they had 18 songs with them to the recording studio so I really think they could have find one that fitted better with the other songs on albums.
And yes the last song, “Nothing Has To Be True” are a bit weak lyrically It’s like the song just stops and are left unfinished. But (and I never thought i would say this because of the synth stuff ) I absolutely LOVE the outro except possible for the last 5 sec.
But the funny things is even though the studioversions of these two songs has the lowest listning rate on Spotify. These songs seem to be very liked live. “Nothing Has To Be True” is ending their shows and “The Hem of Her Dress” is part of the encore
Here is a two videos of these song from a concert at the Beacon in New york.
And I like this version of “Nothing Has To Be True” with one big exception, too much reverb/echo on their voices.
But “The Hem of Her Dress”…Well I still don’t like it…. But the crowd seem to like it and have fun I guess that is the most important thing…
https://youtu.be/xaG4XaMa6sU
https://youtu.be/oDFa6zrNsbk
But a song that a do like is “To Live a Life”. The live version sound quite country, thanks to their steel guitar player. And the sisters really like him. https://youtu.be/IlO4VaYf9M8?t=2m6s
But here is the first Aid Kit I really love…It’s from a show at the rymans. They sung a (almost) unrehearsed, raw and loud cover of “When I Stop Dreaming”. This video is one of my favorite to watch when I feel depressed or sad about something. Because Although it’s a sad love song they sing it with such joy…
https://www.facebook.com/mike.savage.104/videos/10156352886270827/
Kent,
Thanks for your comment, and welcome to the site! Sorry I had to approve it, normally it wouldn’t have been a problem, but it contained many links, and these comments have to be approved in case they contain spam.
I appreciate your comments about my writing, and Trigger is a fantastic writer. There are some other good sites listed in my blogroll, and also one not listed there that I highly recommend called The Musical Divide, themusicaldivide.wordpress.com the writer there is more private, so I don’t put that site on my blogroll, but you will find great writing and reviewing there as well.
For Margo Price, I didn’t do a full-length review; I felt it was not one of her best works. I feel Margo Price is very talented, but more so live, and I felt this album had failings in production and carried many shallow lyrical sentiments. I loved her debut album, but this second one was mostly flat and boring for me. We have a feature here called Memorable Songs from Overlooked Albums, where we try and highlight specific songs from albums we don’t review in full. These will be albums that are not great but not terrible, pretty mediocre for us, but albums which we think our readers might enjoy or from which we still found some really great songs that deserved mentioning. There are a couple of songs from All American Made featured there.
http://countryexclusive.com/memorable-songs-from-overlooked-albums-november-20th/
There is a review of the Weakness EP done by my fellow writer Brianna, but it is pretty lukewarm as well.
http://countryexclusive.com/review-margo-price-weakness-ep/
For this album, it has held up quite well so far and will likely be one of the best of the year. I agree about the outro of “Nothing Has to be True,” it’s very interesting until the final 5 seconds. Thank you for providing the quotes from Klara, they were interesting.
“….Sorry I had to approve it, normally it wouldn’t have been a problem, but it contained many links, and these comments have to be approved in case they contain spam.”
No worries. Trigger does the same if a comment has more than one link.
I visit your site wile at work today, and I saw that you had written an reply.
But I didn’t get your reply sent to my mailbox. And i’m quite certin I checked the checkbox.
Thank you very much for the link to The Musical Divide. It looks like a great site!!! And not limited to only country which suits me since I like other genres too. Like folk for instance.
I’ve read his (Zackary’s) review of Willie Nelson latest single, Brandi Carlile, and of cource First Aid Kit. And it was really good reading. Willie he’s been one of my idols for 40 years now so it always nice to read about him… And Brandi is one of my favorite singer. I love her new album.. But I had/have one issue with it. In my view there are to much reverb.
But after have listening to more and gotten more into the lyrics it’s been less of issue than it was when i first listening to it, since the lyrics are, most of the time, so good…Thanks Again