Tag: First Aid Kit

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Playlists

Playlist: New tunes from 2022, part four

Saturday morning, December 31st, 2022.

Here we are at the precipice of another year. And though I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this year, it was an improvement on the previous two, which makes me think it can only get better from here. Right?

Right.

If you’ve been paying attention to these pages over the last couple of weeks, you’ve seen me counting down my favourite albums released in 2022, the number one album seeing the light of day just yesterday. And now, keeping with the tradition I started over the last couple of years, I’ve left the final instalment of my annual four-part playlist sharing some of my favourite new tunes released during the year to post on this last day of the year. You are welcome to go back and revisit parts one, two, and three, which include songs from the first three quarters of 2022. This final playlist, much like the previous three, collects twenty-five bangers from the last three months. Usually, I would have to bolster this last part with the b-sides, or tracks that I just missed including in the previous three parts, but there was plenty of great new music this time around and I only needed to add a small handful.

Before I carry on, I just wanted to thank those of you who have been reading and listening along this year and for the past handful. I write these words and share these thoughts and it’s all just for the passion of it, for the love of music. So let’s just enjoy this moment and the music that makes it. These here are the final twenty five tunes of the year that have made it all bearable. Highlights include:

      • Where else would I start this last playlist but something from the newest album Canadian indie pop heroes, Alvvays, and “After the earthquake” is everything that we would have hoped it would be
      • “Let the lights on” is a grimy ear worm that begs repeat listens and Sorry is not apologizing for it
      • Don’t be fooled by the moniker, Skullcrusher is not death metal but delicate and lilting indie pop and “Whatever fits together” is just that
      • “Hurricane” and its country/folk delight has us hoping for more from Plains, the collaborative efforts of Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson
      • Canadian quartet Sloan shows us that power pop is still safe in their hands with their latest album and this new single “Magical thinking”
      • Canadian indie folk troubadour Dan Mangan is the latest in a string of artists to pay tribute to former Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, promising everyone that we’ll be “In your corner”
      • I’ve let Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess close things off with a ray of sunshine and hope and “Here comes the weekend” and a brand new year

Here is the entire playlist as I’ve created it:

1. “After the earthquake” Alvvays (from the album Blue rev)

2. “Satellite” Courtney Marie Andrews (from the album Loose future)

3. “Let the lights on” Sorry (from the album Anywhere but here)

4. “Baby don’t you know” Ciel (from the EP Nor in the sun, nor in the dark)

5. “Into the blue” Broken Bells (from the album Into the blue)

6. “Whatever fits together” Skullcrusher (from the album Quiet the room)

7. “Part of the band” The 1975 (from the album Being funny in a foreign language)

8. “Emily smiles” The Lightning Seeds (from the album See you in the stars)

9. “My very best” The Big Moon (from the album Here is everything)

10. “Hurricane” Plains (from the album I walked with you a ways)

11. “See you better now” Wild Pink (from the album ILYSM)

12. “Warm wine” Batts (from the album The nightline)

13. “Abigail” Frankie Cosmos (from the album Inner world peace)

14. “Magical thinking” Sloan (from the album Steady)

15. “One day (it’s being scheduled)” Robyn Hitchcock (from the album Shufflemania!)

16. “Swallow” Girlpuppy (from the album When I’m alone)

17. “In your corner (for Scott Hutchison)” Dan Mangan (from the album Being somewhere)

18. “Out of my head” First Aid Kit (from the album Palomino)

19. “Come on sun” Jason Collett (from the album Head full of wonder)

20. “Morningstar” Smut (from the album How the light felt)

21. “Children of the empire” Weyes Blood (from the album And in the darkness, hearts aglow)

22. “Working for the knife” Mitski (from the album Laurel Hell)

23. “Jackie down the line” Fontaines D.C. (from the album Skinty fia)

24. “Civil liberties” Fake Palms (from the album Lemons)

25. “Here comes the weekend” Tim Burgess (from the album Typical music)

Those of you who are on the Apple Music train can click here to sample the above tracks as a whole playlist.

And as always, wherever you are in the world, I hope you are safe and continue to be well. Above all, enjoy the tunes.

If you’re interested in checking out any of the other playlists I’ve created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2012: #3 First Aid Kit “Emmylou”

<< #4   |    #2 >>

If you had asked me in my youth if there was a type of music that I disliked, I would have answered without hesitation: Country.

To be fair, it was the music of my parents* and teenagers rarely pick up on the music of the previous generation, at least not right away. Then, the “new” country hit the fan in the 80s and 90s, spraying the music of Shania Twain and Garth Brooks – really more pop than country – all over the radio. Is it any wonder, then, that I wasn’t a fan of the genre? Still, as more time has gone on, I have found myself being drawn in by more bands flying the alt-country banner, music influenced by the country music of old.

Back in 2012, some of the bands that were putting out my favourite music were all rocking this sound, bands like Cuff the Duke, The Wooden Sky and yes, First Aid Kit. This latter act may have considered themselves more of a folk band but if you listen to the twang and slide guitar of today’s song, “Emmylou”, you certainly couldn’t discount their country influences. Then, of course, there’s the lyric content. The song metaphorically references legendary country duos Johnny Cash and June Carter-Cash and Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris** to bolster the comparison of singing partnerships with entangled lovers.

“Oh the bitter winds are coming in
And I’m already missing the summer
Stockholm’s cold but I’ve been told
I was born to endure this kind of weather”

And, yes, you read and heard that right.

First Aid Kit’s twin driving forces, sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, are both from the northern climes of Sweden. It shouldn’t be that surprising that a band of such quality comes from the Scandinavian country**, but that they sound like this is somewhat unexpected. And it’s their sound that gained them such popularity. They first cracked popular attention with a YouTube video of them performing a cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger mountain peasant song” and perhaps because of this, many writers had First Aid Kit stealing the helm of brilliance from that same band. All you have to do is listen to the angelic vocal harmonies sung by the sisters to understand why the critics raved.

“Emmylou” was the second single off of First Aid Kit’s second album “The lion’s roar”. I remember liking the album enough when I first heard it but was far too preoccupied with so much new music being released to spend enough time with it. Then, later in the year, the album happened to come up randomly on my iPod while doing some spring cleaning and it suddenly clicked with me. I must have listened to “Emmylou” a half-dozen times on repeat. I was so hooked that I had to share it with my wife, Victoria. Once she got over the initial shock at the country sound, she really enjoyed the song as well. It really is a beautiful tune and captures the yearning and pure pleasure of love.

“No, I’m not asking much of you
Just sing, little darling, sing with me”

*The music of long road trips and hence, forced agony.

**Back in 2015, First Aid Kit performed this song with Emmylou Harris in attendance and the legendary songstress was moved to tears.

***There have been plenty of excellent Swedish bands over last couple of decades.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2012 list, click here.

Categories
Playlists

Playlist: Be my valentine

Okay. So here’s something that’s never been done before, at least not on this blog, or really, during any of my years of blogging. It’s true. I have never done a post observing this somewhat suspect ‘holiday’, a day that has been over-commercialized and become more about selling chocolates and flowers and overpriced dinners than spending time with the one you love. Still, as I’ve alluded to in previous posts, I do have a sappy side, a side that gets totally wrapped up in rom-coms and even the odd Hallmark Christmas film. And yeah, my wife and I typically do observe February 14th, usually in our own quiet way, but the odd time we have gone out for a nice dinner and paid exorbitant prices for roses.

It just so happened a few weeks ago that I realized I was due for a new playlist and the idea occurred to me to create one of ‘love songs’. Then, I quelled the idea, remembering the struggle Victoria and I had looking for appropriate songs in my collection that we could dance to on our wedding day. “Do none of your bands write songs about love?” she asked, frustrated and tired at one point during our search. Apparently not, was the answer, at least not in the conventional sense, the sense in which hair bands managed it in the 80s and out of which some R&B singers have made a career. Often the alternative and indie bands to whom I listen wrote beautiful lyrics that touched on love but did so looking at it not as a pure thing but one to be feared and revered, a bringer of both pain and joy. In short, not your typical love songs.

In the end, we found a handful to use, of which a few of them can be found in the playlist below. Of course, I had Victoria in mind while putting this one together, though I know she wouldn’t appreciate many of the tracks, still, there’s a little something for everyone. I’ve got some iconic tunes by influential alt-rock bands like The Cure and The Smiths, lesser known acts from the 90s like The Lowest of the Low and My Drug Hell, and of course, highlights from the indie kids of this new century, like Bloc Party and The Decemberists. I’ve got the whole list below, in case the Spotify doesn’t work for you, and included a lyrical gem from each song, just to give a glimpse of what you can be listening for as you peruse the list.

1. The Cure “Lovesong”
“Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again. Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am whole again.”

2. Elbow “An audience with the pope”
“I have an audience with the Pope, and I’m saving the world at eight, but if she says she needs me, she says she needs me, everybody’s gonna have to wait.”

3. Blur “To the end”
“You and I collapsed in love. And it looks like we might have made it.”

4. The Rural Alberta Advantage “In the summertime”
“Once in a while, I know our hearts beat out of time. And once in a while, I know they’ll fall back in line.”

5. Teenage Fanclub “What you do to me”
“There’s something about you, got me down on my knees.”

6. The Cranberries “Dreams”
“Now I tell you openly, you have my heart so don’t hurt me. You’re what I couldn’t find, totally amazing mind, so understanding and so kind, you’re everything to me.”

7. The Postal Service “Such great heights”
“I am thinking it’s a sign that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images, and when we kiss they’re perfectly aligned.”

8. Coldplay “Yellow”
“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you.”

9. Depeche Mode “One caress”
“Just one caress from you and I’m blessed.”

10. James “Just like Fred Astaire”
“Meteors may strike the earth. Nations live and die. I’m the boy who got the girl who showed me how to fly.”

11. The Beautiful South “Song for whoever”
“I love you from the bottom of my pencil case. I love you in the songs I write and sing.”

12. Death Cab For Cutie “I will follow you into the dark”
“Love of mine, someday you will die, but I’ll be close behind, and I’ll follow you into the dark. No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white, just our hands clasped so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark.”

13. Oasis “Wonderwall”
“I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now.”

14. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “Do you love me?”
“I knew from that moment on that I’d love her till the day that I died.”

15. The Lowest of the Low “Subversives”
“There’s something subversive about you and me, ’cause there’s a market-value on love and we’re getting something for free.”

16. The Smiths “There is a light that never goes out”
“And if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.”

17. The Lemonheads “Alison’s starting to happen”
“I never looked at her this way before, but now she’s all I see.”

18. Bloc Party “This modern love”
“Do you want to come over and kill some time? Throw your arms around me.”

19. The Verve “Sonnet”
“Yes, there’s love if you want it, don’t sound like no sonnet, my lord.”

20. Chairlift “Bruises”
“I tried to do handstands for you, but every time I fell for you. I’m permanently black and blue, permanently blue for you.”

21. The Decemberists “We both go down together”
“And my parents will never consent to this love. But I hold your hand.”

22. Black Box Recorder “Andrew Ridgley”
“I came alive to the smouldering fire in your eyes. I love you now and I will ’til the day that I die.”

23. The Stone Roses “Ten storey love song”
“When your heart is black and broken and you need a helping hand. When you’re so much in love, you don’t know just how much you can stand.”

24. First Aid Kit “Emmylou”
“I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June, if you’ll be my Gram and my Johnny too. No, I’m not asking much of you, just sing little darling, sing with me.”

25. Björk “Violently happy”
“Since I met you, this small town hasn’t got room for my big feelings. Violently happy, ’cause I love you.”

26. Longpigs “On and on”
“All the songs that I’ve sung you, more often than you know. You’re the love that I’ve clung to more often than I’ve let it show.”

27. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros “Home”
“Ah, home, let me come home, home is wherever I’m with you.”

28. My Drug Hell “Girl at the bus stop”
“Girl at the bus stop, I wished for once that the bus would never come. She sat downstairs, I sat behind I couldn’t get her off my mind.”

29. Pulp “Babies”
“Oh I want to take you home. I want to give you children. You might be my girlfriend, yeah.”

30. Nine Inch Nails “Closer”
“I want to f*ck you. I want to taste you. I want to feel you.”

Enjoy. Happy (Saint) Valentine’s Day.

And of course, I’d be up for hearing what your own favourite ‘love’ songs are from the alternative and indie rock realms.

If you’re interested in checking out any of the other playlists I’ve created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.