CD Odyssey Disc 1162: First Aid Kit

Mark Knopfler once sang “sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug”. This week I feel like the bug. It hasn’t all been bad though. I’ve been getting free bus rides on a new “100% electric” bus the city has been trying out and my walks home have been filled with great weather and good music.

Disc 1162 is… Ruins

Artist: First Aid Kit

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover? Klara and Johanna Soderberg get their Giant Heads on. The problem with a duo is that a Giant Head cover can never reach its full potential; there are just too many heads to account for. Ah well, at least they have attractive heads.

How I Came To Know It: This album was just me buying their new album when it came out – I was already hooked by their earlier work

How It Stacks Up:  I have four First Aid Kit albums and while I really liked “Ruins” competition is stiff. I rank it at #3.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

I don’t know where ‘indie’ stops and ‘popular’ starts, but the single “Fireworks” from “Ruins” has 2.1 million Youtube hits in six months, so I would say they’ve arrived.

Actually, sisters Klara and Johanna Soderberg (aka First Aid Kit) arrived many years prior with a song about Emmylou Harris (“Emmylou”). This was how I first discovered them, along with millions of other people. It is hard to believe that song is now six years old; I guess time flies when you are making great music.

“Ruins” continues their incredible run through the decade. It is their slickest album yet, with a more lush sound, and denser production than on previous records. I like them better stripped down, but their vocals are easily powerful enough to soar above the mix when the moment calls for it and there is still plenty of rustic guitar strumming for us purists.

The record works in organ and a pop sensibility that acknowledges a larger audience, but set to songs that have good folk bones and will offend only the most close-minded of purists. “Rebel Heart” could almost be dream pop if it weren’t for that undercurrent hard rock. Like early Heart, it is a song dressed up like it is going to a Ren Fair but with a heart of rock and roll that is ready to party when it gets there.

Above it all soars the vocals of both women, but in particular Klara Soderberg who matches the power of Nancy Wilson with the angelic tone of Linda Ronstadt. Sister Johanna is no slouch either and when they sing in harmony (which they do often) their voices play off each other like they were born to it. I suppose they were.

While the album successfully explores dream-pop on “Rebel Heart” and the more conventional kind of pop on “It’s a Shame” First Aid Kit find time to honour their musical influences as well. “Postcard” is an old seventies swing-time country song, complete with pedal steel and a delivery that would make Emmylou herself proud.

I’ve mentioned a lot of old school greats, but this isn’t because First Aid Kit is derivative, it is because they have a good sense of musical history. You never feel like they are standing on the shoulders of giants, they’re standing beside them.

The songs have melodies that slowly swell and drop and make you feel like you are being partnered through a Viennese Waltz by a ballroom champion. At times it walks up to the edge of schmaltz, but the power of the vocals and heartfelt delivery keep things real.

As its title suggests, “Ruins” is a record that explores a lot of rough patches and the title track hits the hardest of all. Here is a grade-A song of regret, where that vocal swell is a bit faster, like a light chop on the water. It is still liquid beauty, but there is a hint of distress, underscored with lyrics like:

“I tried to hold on to some kind of dignity
Too long I waded through a vast and endless sea
Thinking, I could find the secret there within

But I gave up, didn't I? It seemed the only way”

The song rocks back and forth, like it is trying to comfort you even as it lays out a collapse of confidence. When the Soderberg’s hit that high harmony you’re reminded of every disappointment you’ve ever had. It’s strangely freeing.

The album ends with the stripped down “Nothing Has To Be True” that continues the theme of regret and ends the record on a bit of a down note. But despite the lyrics the underlying tune has a triumphant progression, like just getting real with yourself is the first step on the road to redemption.

There are a couple of songs (including “Nothing Has To Be True”) which have long musical trails on them after it feels like they should have resolved, but it is short enough (and the songs good enough) that you forgive the excess. There are also moments where I would have preferred slightly less ambient sound and a bit more rawness, but that is more personal preference.

Overall, this is a great record by a band that has yet to take a misstep.

Best tracks: Rebel Heart, It’s a Shame, My Wild Sweet Love, Ruins, Nothing Has to Be True