My silver lining (First Aid Kit) (LP 4376)

First Aid Kit  Stay Gold (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 2014) ****  

Genre: Indie folk, Americana 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Cedar Lane. My Silver Lining

Gear costume: The Bell

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: This is my second First Aid Kit album (their third). I was first hooked by Palomino in 2024.

Stay Gold was released in 2014, but it sounds very similar to Palomino, and is as good as that album, in my opinion. The sisters have that sibling thing where their voices gel superbly. The music is often genre blending - part country, part folk - hence the Americana tag.

There are plenty of great songs on Stay Gold. With a few more listens (I've just bought it), I'm picking it will get up to classic five-star status.

Where do they all belong? Two excellent First Aid Kit albums squared away!

In your own sweet way (Bill Evans) (LP 2528 - 2531)

Bill Evans Trio  How My Heart Sings! (Vinyl, Riverside Records, 1962) *****  

First Aid Kit  Palomino (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 2022) ****  

Fat Freddy's Drop  Live At Roundhouse London (CD, The Drop Records, 2010) *****  

Fat Freddy's Drop  Bays (CD, The Drop Records, 2015) *****  

Genre: Jazz; country rock; jazz/ rock/ reggae/ dub 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Show Type Tune (Bill Evans); 29 Palms Highway (First Aid Kit)

Gear costume: How My Heart Sings! (Bill Evans); Out Of Our Head (First Aid Kit);

Active compensatory factors: A shopping expedition recently in Palmerston North's JB Hi Fi resulted in these four albums being added to the collection.

The Bill Evans album is a remastered version from 1989 but all the original album cover details are perfectly intact.

Jazz critic, C. Michael Bailey, sums it up - "After the ballad-laden Moon Beams, producer Orrin Keepnews wanted a slightly more up-tempo recording that resulted in How My Heart Sings. Fifty years later, the recording remains painfully introspective, up-tempo or not. Evans was the Van Gogh of jazz: sensile and troubled, characteristics that expressed themselves in his playing his entire career." 

First Aid Kit are a duo from Sweden (sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg) and they sound (and look) like two California girls.

I was attracted to their sound by how they reminded me of Jenny Lewis so I listened to Palomino a lot in 2023 on Spotify.

I've noticed their album in JB Hi Fi for a while now and decided to take advantage of JB's 20% discount. This is their fifth album. I like their sound a lot, because of their Jenny Lewis-ness - most obvious on side one and 29 Palms Highway.

My recent run down of Fat Freddy's Drop revealed a gap (Bays) and I happened to notice a copy of it along with the Live at Roundhouse London ($10 reduced to 8 - I call that a bargain).

First the live one - this is from my favorite era for the band - most of these shows come from Dr Boondigga and the Big BW. The band are on form and it's London y'all!! I love the band introduction - FFD - from Lyall Bay, Aotearoa!!

Bays is a classic five-star effort as well. By this stage the guys have created a great sound from their influences but made it distinctly Fat Freddy's Drop groove style - instantly recognisable, and instantly enjoyable. 

Where do they all belong? The start of a catch up of albums on the Nemperor label is coming next.