First Aid Kit, Royal Albert Hall - music review: 'Sweden's sister duo delivered rock-solid songs with golden voices'
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First Aid Kit sprang to wider attention when a video of them covering Fleet Foxes' Tiger Mountain Peasant Song became a YouTube hit. Six years on and three albums in, Sweden's sister duo Johanna and Klara Söderberg are packing out the Albert Hall — and it’s easy to see why.
Backed by a string quartet, drummer and lap-steel guitarist, they began with the harmony-filled Stay Golden, the eponymous track from their latest album. With dad Benkt operating the sound desk, this was a thoroughly family affair and they seemed immediately at home in these larger surroundings.
One of last night’s highlights was a country-rock number called Master Pretender, and you could argue that is all First Aid Kit are doing: pretending. Their American accents, their namechecking of country legends, their songs about freight trains — it’s a long way from their native Stockholm. Still, when the songs are as strong as Emmylou (I’ll be your Emmylou … if you’ll be my Gram”), claims about their authenticity seem unimportant.
The new album sees the sisters embrace a bigger sound, although it was the show’s quietest moment — an unamplified version of Ghost Town — that got the loudest applause. Occasionally, as on the chirpy Heaven Knows, they can sound twee and, some cheese jokes aside, their stage patter was a tad robotic. However, armed with golden voices and rock-solid songs, they have all the tools for success. The rooms can only get bigger.
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