Today's Pick

First Aid Kit get a natural yet vintage makeover in the folk-pop Swedish duo's new autumnal video for "Stay Gold," the Americana hymn that serves as the title track from Swedish indie folk duo's third studio album, a 13-piece orchestra and masters the art of sophisticated sadness which is more about their own life than their previous ones. For First Aid Kit, gold isn’t about specie, fame, or success. It's something much more precious. The singing and songwriting sisters have a knack for transmuting the common into the extraordinary.
Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg have taken what, in the era of TV talent shows and Internet stars, has become a rare path to major-label success. Finds their close harmonies as honey-drenched as ever, "Stay Gold" is a brief cloud over a lovely record that is the aural equivalent of lying in a sunny meadow, with rich texture of classic country instrumentation and stirring string arrangements, matching their soaring vocal melodies.
Like their "My Silver Lining" clip, this one gets lots of mileage from images of both sisters breezing through the shadowy and saturated woodsy landscapes. Inspired by the song itself, which is about fleeting beauty and potential futility and recounts the impermanence of all things such as love and friendship, the Alex Southam-directed clip, shot on the picturesque Swedish island of Gotland with vintage filmmaking, is strewn with a handful of contrasting and albeit gorgeous. There are radiant suns/shadowy cliffs; pristine waves/dead autumn leaves; and the soft glow of twilight/the cold stillness of night. The video matches perfectly with the ethereal and soothing sound that First Aid Kit are known for.

Swedish indie folk-pop duo First Aid Kit made big waves around the world in 2012 when haunting single "Wolf" caught the attention of indie bloggers and alternative radio stations. The Söderberg sisters Klara and Johanna are now gearing up to release their upcoming third LP, "Stay Gold," due June 10 and unveiled new summery video for sublime lead single/album opener "My Silver Lining," a song about finding yourself on the road, where the Soderberg sisters sing about voices calling and "keep on, keepin' on." It sounds simple enough, but that's what they do best: explore simple Americana notions through lush harmonies.

It's hard to image a more lush or evocative summer soundtrack than First Aid Kit's latest haunting country tune. Drenched in strings, "My Silver Lining" is true to the band's folk roots but their canvas is now a little broader musically and that chorus/those gorgeous harmonies could well find a home on pop radio. "It's a song about searching for a reason to keep on keeping on, to find that good that comes with the bad," the Americana-styled folk-harmonizing sisters explained in a press release about their brilliant folk-pop anthem. "We wanted to create a piece that was dark yet uplifting at the same time."
"My Silver Lining" marries disco, folk and a western twang for a distinctly vintage country swing vibe that seems to pay homage to both Harry Nilsson and Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac. Here, First Aid Kit further refine their blend of rootsy Americana, channeling their inner Johnny Cash over a mix of rumbling guitars and sweeping strings. While the orchestration lends a sense of grandiosity and romanticism, the siblings remain thoroughly connected to folk and country's core of straight-ahead heartache and forlorn, even amid somewhat more optimistic fare.
Filmed at the Paramour Mansion in Silver Lake, L.A. by Elliott Sellers, the visually lush clip followed by ghostly versions of themselves and their travels as the ornate mansion seems to come alive, doors open unexpectedly, dishes crash, summoning lightning with their hands and everything is a little hazy. It fits perfectly with unsteadying feel to the song's woozy, eerie Americana vibe. "We wanted to create an intriguing and mysterious world where everything is slightly off and the mansion slowly comes to life," said the sisters. "The idea of things in life changing, even scaring you, but still having to carrying on despite it all is a theme in the song, which we wanted to convey in the video."

First Aid Kit are back with a new utterly beautiful music video for their breezy pop radiation of current single, "Blue," the third single taken from their recent excellent second LP, "The Lion's Roar." a record so bursting full of alternative folk rock that it sounds as though it were spawned from the loins of the dusty midwest, belying the two bashful Scandinavian women, are undoubtedly one of the hottest sister duos around right now in every sense of the word.
The Comet favorite, First Aid Kit, a Swedish indie/folk duo consisting of the young sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, whose close vocal harmonies and woodsy, folk-influenced songwriting take influence from the likes of Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom. The sisters manage to so effortlessly create a timeless sound that is vulnerable yet musically mature can only be commended, and thoroughly enjoyed. Transcending the expectations of the listener.
The pair's newest song "Blue," is full of haunting nuance and the video is positively as beautiful as it is haunting. The track has providing a stunning example of what lies in wait on the album. According to Klara, many songs on "The Lion's Roar," are based on universal emotions: "'Blue' is about this woman who looking back at her life and regretting the things she didn't do. We sort of write about our fears of the future and regrets we may have kind of as a warning to ourselves - 'Don't become these people', rather than just 'Oh, I'm 19 and I'm scared about the future.'"
The sisters do appear in the Daniel Wirtberg-directed video, but taking center stage is the veteran Swedish actress Ewa Fröling, who stars as a widowed former beauty queen. A touching video showing Fröling going about her daily business and the troubles she has when visiting a local bonfire. The relationship between beauty and age is a finicky thing, but legendary Swedish actress is an exception to the rule, as best exemplified here. Bonfires, Dickensian homes, and snazzy shades add an eerie twinge to this '60s throwback.