First Aid Kit - Ruins

Ruins is First Aid Kit's heartbreak record, a 2018 album of aching harmonies pressed here on 180-gram vinyl in a gatefold jacket with a digital download card.

After years of nonstop touring, Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg took a long break, and this fourth album came out of that pause and the end of a relationship. They crossed the Atlantic to record it with producer Tucker Martine at his Portland studio, bringing in friends including R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Wilco's Glenn Kotche and Midlake's McKenzie Smith. The sound is looser and more lived-in than before, with room for the band to breathe.

Rebel Heart opens slowly and builds into a swirling, defiant swell. It's a Shame is the bright, rolling lead single, its melody far happier than its lyrics, while Fireworks reaches for a big, wistful sixties ballad sound. Postcard brings out the country twang, a breakup song delivered with a rueful shrug.

Through it all, the sisters' voices remain the main event, blending as only siblings can and lifting even the saddest lines into something luminous.

This is a warm, honest record about falling apart, picking up the pieces and carrying on. Heavyweight vinyl gives those harmonies all the space they deserve.