Four years after their critically praised album Stay Gold, Swedish duo First Aid Kit are back with their fourth LP titled Ruins. The record comes after personal and professional turmoils. Klara and Johanna Soderberg have been creating music and performing ever since they were teenagers. Being in public eye from such an early age was not easy, but the duo was up for the occasion, while simultaneously delivering intriguing materials.
Folk they nurture was always leaning towards classic country, but never as much as on Ruins. If their approach to country was shy before, we can call it hazardous now. So it is plausible to connect the album's title with the exploration of traditional, roots music, or to be more precise, of what is left from this type of music. Ruins is equally archaic and modern, and it represents their most mature album yet, woven in melancholy and peculiar exuberance.
That Ruins is more harsh and cutting than its predecessors becomes clear from the go in the song Rebel Heart that is bursting from intense emotional maturity. Seductive melancholy grows into rebellious conflict with self and others, bordering with despair, rather than courage. After affectionate intro, the album introduces country sound on a track It's A Shame that serves as castigation of Los Angeles and everything this city represents. Postcard goes step further, so it sounds like honky tonk number in which Klara and Johanna have figured it out quite well. After those mirthful songs comes My Wild Sweet Love that takes us to the dark tones and dark lyrics. Distant Star resembles Neko Case, and it's, in my humble opinion, unfortunately produced intervention.
The last two tracks are the heaviest from the point of sincerity, with Hem of Her Dress being the ultimate country lamentation. Each and every breath we take/a step towards death. When the album closes in such manner, the message is clear. Candor, power and straightforwardness of this record sets the bar high not only for the future albums of First Aid Kit, but also for all the other folk/country acts.
