Big-voiced Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg make their intentions perfectly clear on MySpace: “We aim for the hearts, not the charts”. Commendable, but given the pressure on any artist to perform well commercially – different targets for different troupes, granted, but targets nonetheless – perhaps a little naively idealistic. The Big Black & the Blue is, expectedly, not an album that will top any countdown this side of a dramatic and unforeseen folk revolution. First Aid Kit’s debut is all delicate picks and humble strums, where many girls its makers’ age – they were born in 1990 and 1993 Read more on Last.fm.
These Swedish sisters began putting songs together at the tender ages of 14 and 17. This, their first full length album didn’t came out very shortly after that and is… a thing of beauty. Folk beauty. Swedish folk beauty, really. The lyrics speak of an understanding and maturity well beyond their years, and the music itself is deftly yearning to be happy in the midst of sorrow. One of my few musical regrets is not making it to their show whilst they were out in Australia.