I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: FIRST AID KIT-The Big Black and the Blue (2010).

Following their debut EP, Johanna and Klara Söderberg recorded a full length album, this one also produced by their dad.

This album feels a little bigger, a little fuller, overall. I’m sure the drums help, but also the guitar feels enveloping.  The biggest development is how terrific the sisters’s voices sound together.  They have really gotten their harmonies (including falsetto) totally in sync.

“In the Morning” has nearly one minute of gorgeous a capella harmony until a simple but interesting guitar motif comes in–and the powerful harmonies continue.  “Hard Believer” is acoustic guitar and Klara’s solo voice until the chorus when Johanna’s harmony adds heft to the song.  More instruments follow as well–mandolin shows up here and there.

“Sailor Song” opens with an autoharp, normally a jokey kind of instrument, but it works very well with their voices.  When the song launches into a 1-2 stomp, a nod to some of their country love, it really takes off.  “Waltz for Richard” is, indeed, a waltz with knock-out harmonies in the chorus.

“Heavy Storm” has some great music–a slight departure form the standard strum, and it’s quite engaging with their voices.  “Shot Down” opens with a harmonium (or accordion). It turns into a pretty, slow piece with spare piano.  It mind-boggling to think that these two songwriters were just 19 and 17 when they were writing lyrics like

And I remember how you told me
All that you wanted to do
The dream of Paris in the morning
Or a New York window view
And I can see it now you’re married
And your wife is with a child
And you’re all laughing in the garden
And I’m lost somewhere in your mind

“Josefin” is a pretty song with layered harmonies over a simple one-two bass rhythm.   “A Window Opens” has a great waltz rhythm and a cool guitar melody.  And “Winter Is All Over You” has s lovely spare guitar melody with Klara’s voice soaring over it.  (I love the aaaaahh section, it is really gorgeous).  “I Met Up With A King” is one of my favorite songs on the disc.  The delicate flute and their close harmonies are just beautiful in this spritely song.  I also love the way they sing “Thank Gawwwwwwd” in an almost aggressive style with the rough note that they hold a lot longer than expected.

The disc ends with a delicate pastoral “Wild of the River” a delightful folk song.

While it’s true that each successful album gets bigger and better, this is a wonderful debut full length, especially if you like their folkier style.

[READ: January 9, 2018] “Foreign-Returned”

Hassan works in Connecticut.  He and his wife had moved from Pakistan when he had gotten a job in Manhattan.  But he was let go and before his Visa coul run out, he quickly got a new job in Stamford.  It was quite a come down.  And despite the huge savings in rent, the place they lived was nothing compared to Manhattan.

He had been in Stamford for eight weeks, with his own desk and everything, when a young woman, early 20s, was introduced at his workstation.  She would be sharing space with him.  Her name was Hina and she was also Pakistani.

She had computer manuals, a velvet-covered Quran and wore a scarf.  He found her rather annoying.

She had grown up in America and had only been back to Pakistan (to Gujranwala) once, as a teenager.

Hani was a hard worker, much more so than Hassan.  And she knew it.  She was standoffish and superior.  At home Hassan mocked her to his wife Sara: “You see, that’s why American Pakistanis like me are superior to Pakistani Pakistanis like you.”

Every Sunday in the summer Sara and Hassan were invited to the Ahmeds house in Darien.  They were from Lahore and were friends of friends.  They were also wealthy and ostentatious.  They had a time share in Naples, Florida.   And every weekend they hosted a back yard party.

Sara felt particularly out of place their.  They were but renters and she felt so ordinary.  She wanted better for herself and Hassan.  And one day, at one of the parties, she told a lie.  She told about the house they were looking into and the plans they were making for it.  Hassan was disappointed, but Sara did manage to go home with swatches of colors and fabrics.

When the summer ended, so did the parties.  The Ahmeds stopped hosting barbeques and started hosting multicultural book clubs.  Hassan and Sara hoped to be invited, but the Ahmeds pointed out that they already had Pakistanis (the Ahmeds) coming.

One morning at work, Hina came in and told Hassan about a recent experience she had.  She said she knew they weren’t friends, but she needed to tell someone.  She was out canvassing for a Democratic candidate when a white car pulled up and the white boys inside made her feel bad.  Nothing illegal exactly just aggressive.  The policeman said to her “if I had a dollar for every time someone behaved badly I’d be rich.”

She ended by saying she wished she had told the boys to go fuck themselves.  Hassan was shocked by the curse which he never expected to hear from her.  He also wondered what it would be like to be a full American in a country where you were minority.

While they were talking, she revealed that she knew the Ahmeds.  They are friends form the Islamic Center.  When he tells Sara that, she is thoroughly annoyed that he hadn’t found that out sooner. Sara immediately set about to inviting Hina over for dinner.

Sara was trying to schmooze her but it failed because Hina refused to eat the steak–she only ate Halal.

But that December, Hassan and Hina had received a holiday party invitation.  Hina said she probably wouldn’t go because they served alcohol and that bothered her.  Hassan said she didn’t have to drink it.  Hina said that she didn’t think he understood what it meant to stick to your principles.

The party is bad for all of the characters   Hina is humiliated by some of the older ladies, Hassan drinks too much and Sara talks too loudly about how they had to fire the contractor on their fictitious new place.  The men are all talking about how the new administration will be good for business.

Hina declares that she is going to leave.  The hosts insist that Hassan accompany her since he knows her.  She refuses to get in a car with him because he is is drunk, so they share a cab ride.

I loved that the story was fraught with tension even though neither one had any intentions of doing anything untoward. Although Hina makes the point that something “could have happened.”

At work on Monday, Hina told Hassan a childhood story a story about her sticking up for her principles despite her family’s intentions.  She was serious.  She intended to get a BA and buy a house.  Nothing would stand in her way.

The title of the story comes from an expression, “foreign-returned” is something that Hassan’s UK-educated uncles put on their business cards in Pakistan, “as if it designated membership to an exclusive club.”

With the trappings of a Trump America, would it be better to be foreign-returned or to strive for any American success?

For ease of searching, I include: Johanna and Klara Soderberg