SOUNDTRACK: FIRST AID KIT-The Lion’s Roar (2012).
This album was my first exposure to First Aid Kit and I immediately loved the harmonies and the dark but positive-sounding vocals.
I’m probably one of ten people on earth who doesn’t love Bright Eyes, but I love the production by Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis (with contributions from Bright Eyes’ Nate Walcott and band leader Conor Oberst–maybe I need to re-listen to Bright Eyes).
The first song I’d heard was the opening cut “The Lion’s Roar.” The song starts with a minor key guitar chord progression and “electronic flute.” It’s atmospheric and a bit spooky-sounding, but when they come in with the chorus “And I’m a goddamn coward, but then again so are you” in wonderful harmony that is at times right on and other times kind of dissonant, it’s goose-bump-inducing. Oh wow. what a moment
Pitchfork describes that electronic flute as “one deeply eerie flute tone that lingers throughout, floating in and out of scenes like a sly specter” and that’s pretty accurate.
It’s followed by “Emmylou” the most gorgeous country song I’ve ever heard, complete with pedal steel guitar and a wonderfully evocative chorus: “I’ll be your Emmylou, and I’ll be your June/ If you’ll be my Gram and my Johnny, too,” (do watch them sing it to Emmylou Harris at an award ceremony and watch her brought to tears).
“In The Hearts Of Men” slows things down with some wonderful moments as the sisters sing the “la la las” throughout the chorus. Once again, there’s surprisingly dark lyrics for two women around 23 and 21. And speaking of dark lyrics, the pretty xylophone and guitar play a chirpy melody in “Blue” which has this stark and dark verse:
And the only man you ever loved / You thought was gonna marry you / Died in a car accident when he was only 22 / Then you just decided, love wasn’t for you / And every year since then / Has proved it to be true
Damn. How does a song with that lyrics have a beautiful soaring chorus that is so uplifting and Abba-esque and yet again lyrically:
But you’re just a shell of / Your former you / That stranger in the mirror / Oh, that’s you / Why’d you look so blue?
“This Old Routine” features more of that uncanny, how are you only 21 years old lyrics sung with such beautiful harmony (and delicate mandolin sprinkled in):
This old routine will drive you mad
It’s just a mumble never spoken out loud
And sometimes you don’t even know why you loved her.
Well you look at her now, and you see why.
The second half of the song has strings and such, playing a simple five note melody. There’s a moment near the end where the strings play that five note riff and its followed by the mandolin playing the same melody one step up and it’s just gorgeous.
“To a Poet” has a fast tight guitar melody. As the song builds, a harmonium is added. The chorus goes in a high register until the simple catchy end line: “There’s nothing more to it / I just get through it.” The poet in question is Frank O’Hara
But Frank put it best when he said
“You can’t plan on the heart”
Those words keep me on my feet
When I think I might just fall apart
The string section ending is bit of a surprise since neither one of them palsy on it but it does add some nice texture to this song that has just grown from a tiny guitar to full orchestration over the course of 6 minutes.
That cool flute sound returns on “I Found a Way,” as it runs through the falsetto-filled chorus. “Dance To Another Tune” slows things down for a while until the middle features another string section. This time the sisters add their “bah bah bahs” to it and it sound terrific.
“New Year’s Eve” brings back the autoharp (you can really hear the plectrum zipping along the strings–something I’ve never noticed when others play it). It’s a suitably quiet song with a gentle harmony on the final line of the chorus: “that’s what’s going to save me.” And I love that no other instrumentation is added.
The end of the record is quite different from anything else. “King of the World’ is a dynamic romp, easily their fastest, loudest, stompingest song. It’s got a full band behind them and a vocal turn from Conor Oberst. There’s all kinds of strings and mandolin tucked in the corners that peek out here and there. There’s even horns which sound a bit like Calexico.
This album is just fantastic. And their harmonies get better and more confident with each album.
[READ: January 22, 2018] “Writing Teacher”
I have not really enjoyed any of the stories I’ve read by Wideman. This was the first one that I felt was on the right path to my enjoyment. And then it kind of drifted away from me at the end.
It also features one of the things I hate most in stories–more on that in a moment.
This is the story of a writing teacher. He is reading and reviewing a story by a student, Teresa McConnell who, “wants to help other people.” The story “wishes to save the life of its main character, a young woman of color, a few years out of high school, single, child to support, no money, shitty job, living with her mother who never misses an I-told-you-so chance to criticize her daughter’s choices.”
What I hate most in stories comes a few sentences later: (more…)
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I like The National quite a lot. Although sometimes I don’t. Sometimes their songs can be more than a little dour. But they also have a tremendous sense of humor–they have done three songs for Bob’s Burgers after all.
I Just Read About That... 