First Aid Kit – Hard Believer/Waltz For Richard

If you didn’t already know that First Aid Kit’s Klara and Johanna Söderberg were Swedish sisters it’s likely that you wouldn’t guess their nationality from their music. They could quite easily come from the North West of the USA, home of Fleet Foxes who gave them a leg up by showcasing their heartbreaking cover of their ‘Mountain Tiger Peasant Song’ on their MySpace page. Now signed to Wichita, they have a debut album out next year and this lead-off single is a perfect showcase for them.

We’ll forgive the slightly clunky lyrics (’Love is tough, time is rough’) which brought to mind some of Richard Ashcroft’s groping with his mother tongue on the last Verve album, though thankfully the rest of the lyrics take a surprisingly, mature nontheistic outlook on life and how to live it. The building nature of the piano, tambourine and structure also come out of the late-Britpop playbook with the song easily passable as Embrace or Oasis on paper.

However, what sets it apart is their beautiful, sad, intertwined vocals, knotting together as well as the equally pleasing sound of a trilling mandolin, ringing out bringing to mind The Smiths’ ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’. The harmonious refrain of “and it’s one life/and it’s this life/and it’s beautiful” is as life-affirming as the message. Flipside ‘Waltz For Richard’ is more pastoral and acoustic based but again displays the sister’s winning combination of vocals and a sweet melody.