First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
First Aid Kit
'Stay Gold'
Tiger Rating - 8.0 / 10
Two girls dressed in gold singing about New York City with banjos. Hmm.
I had to do some research on these girls because honestly I only knew their name and nothing else. This is the first album I've heard by them and it's a total breath of fresh air. The last time I heard something this fresh was when 'Isles' by Wild Belle came out early last year.
So First Aid Kit are Swedish sisters. They covered a Fleet Foxes song, put the video on YouTube and here they are now with three albums under their rhinestone belts. They've rubbed shoulders with all the right people and have bagged some epic gigs. This probably accounts for the incredibly mature sound. It's not granny mature though. They sound as fresh as ... as something so fresh there's no comparison. 'Stay Gold' is expertly balanced. Not only is the production crystalline, but every arrangement works so well and there are very few missteps taken. Just as you're getting a little bit bored of the whole country sway, they drop down low and make an elegantly simple ballad 'Shattered And Hollow'. Instruments gently join vocals towards the end of the first chorus and hang in the background as the rest of the song's story unfolds.
There is so much space to breath on this album. Listen to it on a Saturday afternoon and you will feel like you are in a sunlit field with nothing to do but blow dandelion seeds to the wind. It's the equivalent of a sorbet on a hot day. Every song tells a story, but at no point are you snowed under or bored by narration. And as flutes lift you up on the breeze and carry you away, this album's echoes stay with you, wanting to bring you back for more. Even when they're singing about winter, every syllable drips with lazy sunshine.
So I now love First Aid Kit. Spread the word!
WVS
I had to do some research on these girls because honestly I only knew their name and nothing else. This is the first album I've heard by them and it's a total breath of fresh air. The last time I heard something this fresh was when 'Isles' by Wild Belle came out early last year.
So First Aid Kit are Swedish sisters. They covered a Fleet Foxes song, put the video on YouTube and here they are now with three albums under their rhinestone belts. They've rubbed shoulders with all the right people and have bagged some epic gigs. This probably accounts for the incredibly mature sound. It's not granny mature though. They sound as fresh as ... as something so fresh there's no comparison. 'Stay Gold' is expertly balanced. Not only is the production crystalline, but every arrangement works so well and there are very few missteps taken. Just as you're getting a little bit bored of the whole country sway, they drop down low and make an elegantly simple ballad 'Shattered And Hollow'. Instruments gently join vocals towards the end of the first chorus and hang in the background as the rest of the song's story unfolds.
There is so much space to breath on this album. Listen to it on a Saturday afternoon and you will feel like you are in a sunlit field with nothing to do but blow dandelion seeds to the wind. It's the equivalent of a sorbet on a hot day. Every song tells a story, but at no point are you snowed under or bored by narration. And as flutes lift you up on the breeze and carry you away, this album's echoes stay with you, wanting to bring you back for more. Even when they're singing about winter, every syllable drips with lazy sunshine.
So I now love First Aid Kit. Spread the word!
WVS
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