Just Sing...

Occasional Albums Thing 068 - First Aid Kit “Palomino”

Do you ever get a new album and it becomes difficult to find your way into it ? It’s like there’s a barrier keeping you at a distance from liking something you really want to like. Until one day, you “listen” to it in a different situation and something clicks and you’re right in amongst it. That’s what was happening with me and “Palomino”, First Aid Kit’s 5th and most recent album from 2022, I just wasn’t getting it. Then one morning, Deb and I were changing the bed and I had this one playing in my record room across the landing and for no obvious reason it sounded like a completely different record and I was “in”. Suddenly the first 3 songs, “Out Of My Head”, “Angel” and “Ready To Run”, opened up for me and we were off.

“Palomino” sees harmonising sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg somewhat embracing the sounds of modern “pop” music to add to their Swedish Folk and Country Rock influences. The stunning vocal harmonising is still firmly in place but some of the musical settings are leaning more toward the “now”. 

One of the reasons I was finding it so problematic getting into “Palomino” is that there are some things on this album that I’m not entirely comfortable with. As an example, the second of that opening trio of songs, “Angel”, has a sheen of mid-late 70’s, US AOR radio Fleetwood Mac style about it. In an interview with NME the sisters were quoted as saying it is “a hopeful tune for these crazy times, about accepting other people even if you don't always see eye to eye". It is indeed a hopeful song, lyrics like “I'll love you even if you can't love me” tell you that. But, as I utterly despise that mid-late 70’s, US AOR radio Fleetwood Mac style, the whole song and its sound of just that is something of a big ya-boo-sucks to me I guess. It is a great song, just a little bit too “Go Your Own Way” in places for me to be completely comfortable….nice ABBA tribute in the video tho’.

Prior to that, first song “Out Of My Head” features a backing track that wouldn’t sound out of place in the current top 40 chained to a rousing chorus. The third of the opening trio, “Ready To Run”, has a sprinkle of Springsteen in the piano and instrumental break melody. I can also relate to the lyric “I thought by this age I’d always know what to say”, in fact there’s a lot of lyrics on here that hit home for me.

“Fallen Snow” has the feel of Indie Pop and that’s followed by “Wild Horses II” which is is one I like a lot. The lyric is built around a relationship in trouble while on a road trip, bought into focus by which version of “Wild Horses” does one or the other partner prefer, the Rolling Stones or Gram Parsons (actually it’s the Flying Burrito Brothers rather than just Gram and for the avoidance of any doubt the Burrito’s version, which was released before the Stones, is absolutely the better take). Just to hammer home the connection the song quotes the lyric “You know I can't let you slide through my hands” from the song it takes its title from.

Another real standout track is “The Last One”, which isn’t the last one but the first track on side 2. It harks back to the sound of “Stay Gold” with a gorgeous chorus and an upbeat lyric (“I wanna love you like nobody’s ever loved you, I want you to be the last one I ever love”). Closing song “Palomino” is a beauty too.

The whole album feels more “grown up”, something Klara Söderberg said a lot in interviews around the release, there is a bigger production happening with strings and horns adding to the duo’s sound. A Palomino horse isn’t always born with that  beautiful golden coat and white mane, their colouring can change as they age, growing into their coats. So even the albums title hints at maturation and change. For the first time in a long time the sisters wrote with others and with that there certainly feels like a move away from their previous Folk and Country roots and a move toward AOR, hippy-ish Folk/Rock and more modern production values.

One annoying thing about the record itself…the labels on both sides are identical, so to identify which side to play you have to look at the matrix numbers in the run out groove. First time I’ve come across that niggle.

As much as I have minor issues with “Palomino” I do really like it. Firstly lyrically it really hits for me. I have no clue how a pair of Swedish sisters in their mid 30’s managed to write lyrics that appeal so much to this sexagenarian displaced Brummie but I guess it’s another pointer to the fact that all of us ape-descended life forms aren’t so different from each other no matter where we are from. And secondly, as I’m sure you may be aware by now, I adore the Söderberg sisters voices. They could honestly sing the contents of the ".gov.uk" website and make it sound beautifully compelling. Some of the musical settings on “Palomino” move their sound into a more “adult” arena, whether that’s a good or bad thing is another question entirely….I still like them tho’…

Wild Horses II - https://youtu.be/T3Kx8Rp58Fo?si=AmTvYgLTr0SSN7vE