SWEDISH sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg's melancholic country folk-pop has become more American by the album, and their fourth is a wholly American project, recorded with producer Tucker Martine in Portland, Oregon, with such guests as REM's Peter Buck, Wilco's Glenn Kotche and Midlake's McKenzie Smith.
The accents have slipped that way too, like Joss Stone and Laura Marling before them, and while it would be an exaggeration to say Ruins has ruined them, First Aid Kit need to reconnect with some Scandi-Noir chills.
As the title suggests, Ruins is a break-up album, picking up from the wreckage of Klara's broken relationship, and for the first handful of songs, the sisters tap into a well of hurt with all their trademark sorrowful harmonising.
Rebel Heart sets the mood, the single It's A Shame strides out, Fireworks waltzes by, and Postcards makes you wish more of us still wrote that way, but side two is too low-key, too familiar, too mid-tempo. Time to show some teeth.
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