First Aid Kit - The Big Black And The Blue (Wichita)

Gosh the two Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg that make up First Aid Kit don’t half know how to tug at those heartstrings. One listen was all I needed for their phenomenally beautiful single ‘Hard Believer’ to make their way to the top of my most wanted list with their heavenly dual vocals and country tinged folk and I’m delighted to say that when their album finally dropped on my doorstep that the rest of it is just as magnificent as that first track.

The Big Black And The Blue seems to disregard any of their Scandinavian roots instead hitting on an alt country style echoing the sort of sound resonating from Seattle at the moment with various homage’s to folk and country legends of the past and their obvious adoration for such sounds new and old it’s hard to believe that these two girls were both born in the nineties (making them both younger than me which is kind of scary) especially when listening to their lyrics, tales of loves lost and heartbreak stories that should generally be beyond their years but nonetheless their lyricism is generally bang on the money and something of a strong point. Their sound can be very minimal at times with delicate guitar picking and the occasional bit of flute of vox with the sound completely driven by the duos astonishing vocal harmonies, from the yodelling of ‘Waltz For Richard’ to the dirty, passionate growls that end ‘I Met Up With A King.’ It sways between the light folk of tracks such as ‘A Window Opens’ to the haunting ballad of ‘Ghost Town’ which melody has the power to take the listener away, far away and you do tend to lose yourself in the melody.

When talking about the album the sisters have said “We aim for the hearts, not the charts” which is an apt quote but with an album as lush and pure as this I don’t see why they wouldn’t make a bit of a storm in the charts seeing as how so many of their predecessors (Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes) have hit the ground running. The talents of these two girls is still so underexposed and I hope that The Big Black And The Blue gets the exposure it deserves.