First Aid Kit Preview New Album, ‘Ruins,’ With Melancholic Song ‘Postcard’

For First Aid Kit, the angelic-sounding Swedish sister duo, life experience has brought them a more urgent connection to artists that inspired them, like Townes Van Zandt and the Carter Family. This connection is at the core of “Postcard,” the newest song from their forthcoming LP, Ruins, due on January 19th. Premiering exclusively in a lyric video on Rolling Stone Country, “Postcard” sets Klara and Johanna Söderberg to a twangy, Gram Parson-esque piano line that says a final farewell to a fading romance. 

“‘Postcard’ is one of the most traditional sounding songs we’ve ever written, and we wanted the production to mirror that,” Klara tells Rolling Stone Country of the track that moves the sisters away from their more ethereal material to grounded, rootsy construction. “It’s not a resentful song, but more of a reaching out to a lover to wish them well on their journey in the midst of having to let them go.”

“Postcard” is a preview from the sisters’ forth album Ruins, produced by Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket). Recorded in Portland, Oregon, the album features appearances from REM’s Peter Buck, Wilco’s, Glenn Kotche, and Midlake’s McKenzie Smith, and puts the Söderberg’s eerily precise yet vulnerable harmonies on full display. Written in the wake of a breakup – Klara from her now ex-fiancé – and some unrest between the sisters, Ruins treats experiences as artifacts still worth revisiting even once they’re broken: like Stonehenge or the Coliseum, a life in pieces is no less brilliant than one perfectly intact.

First Aid Kit will return to the road this winter in support of Ruins, with stops including Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and New York’s Beacon Theater. Ruins is the follow up to Stay Gold, their 2014 LP that was chosen as one of Rolling Stone‘s best country records of the year.

First Aid Kit Tour Dates

1/24 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
1/26 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater*
1/27 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre*
1/28 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre*
1/30 – Minneapolis, MN @ Palace Theatre*
2/01 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium*
2/02 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre*
2/03 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall*
2/05 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall*
2/06 – Montreal, QC @ Metropolis Concert Hall*
2/07 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues*
2/09 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre*
2/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer*
2/13 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre*

*Van William Supporting