The Beat Surrender

For two teenage scandinavians with no releases to speak of in the UK until now, First Aid Kit have made a bit of a bump in the music press over here.

Wichita Recordings are one of those labels that always manage to stay at the cutting edge of things so it’s no surprise to find that they are behind the re-release of the Drunken Trees EP, which originally came out on The Knife’s label in Sweden last year.

The promo version doesn’t have their cover of Fleet Foxes Tiger Mountain Peasant Song which the released version will alonside 3 live DVD tracks as a bonus, so I can’t comment on that, but I can certainly here enough here to see why they are being touted as big breakthrough artists this year.

They don’t get it all right on here, Little Moon is a bit too twee and Pervigilo goes on a touch too long, but they really shine on You’re Not Coming Home Tonight and Tangerine, (both of which will be released as a double a-side on the 9th Feb) which both feature equisite storytelling and open emotions that seem to come across so well in folk style music. Jagadamba, You Might is also a beautiful track and Cross Oceans is equally as good and probably the most insistent of all the tracks on here.

A bright future indeed then for these two youngsters, the Drunken Trees Ep is out on the 23rd February.