Tag Archives: Lilly Hiatt

Album Review: First Aid Kit–Ruins

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.

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Album Review: Lilly Hiatt–Trinity Lane

Rating: 7/10

Since there’s only one new album I even care about listening to this week, it seems that now would be a good time to start clearing albums from the back burner, especially since we’re getting near the end of 2017, and everyone seems to be working on those infamous lists. And the first one I have to get to is the latest record from Lilly Hiatt, released back in August and one of the most fascinating records I’ve heard this year.

The interesting thing about this album is it’s a mood record; no, not in the sense of say, the latest records from Sam Outlaw or Willie Nelson, not slow and easy and relaxing. And not in the sense of something like the Shinyribs album either, where you have to be in the mood to not take anything too seriously in order to really enjoy it to the fullest. Trinity Lane is an emotionally charged affair, a breakup record that captures all the ups and downs and in-betweens felt during that period, and just as Lilly Hiatt had to be in a certain head space to create it, you have to be in a certain mood to appreciate it. I’ve given this one many listens before forming my final opinion, and my conclusion is that if you’re happy, in a generally good mood, this album goes down to a 5 or a 6. It’s when you can empathize with Lilly and understand somewhat the emotional state from which she’s writing and singing that you really begin to appreciate this album.

As I say, this is a breakup record, and the beauty of it is that it manages to detail all the different emotions, even contradicting ones. For example, she’s apologizing for being, in her own words, a bitch on “The Night David Bowie Died,” yet saying that she gave the relationship her all in “Everything I had.” Here, she seems to deny any responsibility she might have claimed in the former song. Sometimes you see her trying to move on and fix her own problems, like in the title track, and other times, she’s emotionally out of touch and obsessing over her ex, as told in the song “Different, I Guess.” She seems heartbroken over the breakup often, but at other times, she seems to embrace freedom. “Records,” one of the album’s standouts, details how music can help us through things like this, and Hiatt states in that song, “I’ll take lonely if it means free.” The biggest strength of this album is that it depicts all these different stages of dealing with the breakup; real life is like that, and sometimes our emotions change daily. I’m sorry Lilly Hiatt had to go through all this to make this record, but it produced some truly cool and interesting art.

That said, the album as a whole is more interesting than some of the songs. A few of them stand out individually, and this is one of the rare times I’ll list the standout tracks for the album at the bottom because if you don’t choose to listen to the entire thing, some of the songs don’t stand as well on their own. “I Wanna Go Home” is a good example of this, as she’s traveling around searching for answers. It adds a good angle to the overall story, but it’s kind of forgettable on its own. “Different, I Guess” is also vital to the story, but the melody is just strange, and she tries to cram a whole bunch of words into the chorus that shouldn’t fit there which makes it one of the more awkward tracks. “All Kinds of People” is pretty forgettable too, as it doesn’t really flatter her voice and is done better by other songs on the album.

But there are also moments on this album that manage to stand out even apart from the overarching story. The aforementioned title track can get stuck in your head quite easily, as well as “The Night David Bowie Died.” It’s easy to relate to these as well, and you feel a bit less like an observer and more like you share a common ground with Hiatt on these tracks. “Sucker” and “So Much You Don’t Know” create a great moment toward the end of the record, as Lilly veers more into the territory of self-reflection, wistful that she didn’t get to show her ex parts of her life that were important to her. In the latter, she’s wishing he asked about her, saying that she always was the one inquiring about his life. You get the sense that as the album progresses, she’s realizing the issues that had been present in the relationship. These two tracks stand out above the overarching theme as well because again, they are more universally relatable and not just unique to Lilly’s situation. We all want to share certain parts of ourselves with someone and have them care enough to want to know those details about us.

This is a fascinating record and has been easily the hardest thing for me to assign a rating to in 2017. The album as a whole is going to appeal to those who like darker, more emotional music, and if you’re not in the right mood to enjoy it, I would recommend just listening to specific songs. It’s also not strictly country; rather, it falls into the Americana realm, so if you are looking for more traditional stuff, this probably won’t be your thing either. “So Much You Don’t know” is pretty country, but then again, “The Night David Bowie Died” isn’t even close. So it’s not necessarily an album that I think everyone reading this will appreciate, but for the right audience, it’s quite a good one, and there are some great songs that many of you will enjoy regardless.

Standout Tracks: “Trinity Lane,” “The Night David Bowie Died,” “Records,” “Imposter,” “Sucker,” “So Much You Don’t Know”

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