The Big Black and the Blue

The Big Black and the Blue is the first studio album by Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit. It was released on 25 January 2010 in the UK via Wichita Recordings, followed by a U.S. release on 25 May 2010.

The Big Black and the Blue
Studio album by
First Aid Kit
Released25 January 2010
RecordedCellar Door
GenreFolk
Length42:10
LabelWichita
ProducerKlara Söderberg
Johanna Söderberg
Benkt Söderberg
First Aid Kit chronology
Drunken Trees
(2008)		 The Big Black and the Blue
(2010)		 The Lion's Roar
(2012)

Track listing

All tracks written by Klara and Johanna Söderberg.

No.TitleLength
1."In the Morning"2:36
2."Hard Believer"3:40
3."Sailor Song"2:44
4."Waltz for Richard"2:49
5."Heavy Storm"3:21
6."Ghost Town"4:47
7."Josefin"3:31
8."A Window Opens"4:21
9."Winter Is All Over You"3:39
10."I Met Up with the King"2:49
11."Wills of the River"4:19
UK Edition bonus track
No.TitleLength
12."All My Trials"3:34
UK iTunes Edition bonus track
No.TitleLength
12."I'm Building Myself A Boat"3:22
Re-issue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Hard Believer (Live on KCRW)"3:38
13."Heavy Storm (Live on KCRW)"3:05
14."Ghost Town (Live on KCRW)"4:30
15."I Met up with a King (Live on KCRW)"3:25
Itunes bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Josefin (Live at the Old Queens Head, London)"3:30
13."Sailor Song (Live at the Old Queens Head, London)"2:55

Reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic70/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
NME[2]
Clash[3]
BBC(positive)[4]
musicOMH[5]
Drowned in Sound[6]
AllMusic[7]
The Guardian[8]
There Goes the Fear(positive)[9]
The Line of Best Fit(positive)[10]

The Big Black and The Blue received a largely positive reception from music journalists.

NME awarded the album a score of 8/10, highlighting the band's "phenomenal way with gorgeous melodies and heart-melting harmonies",[2] while Clash wrote that "the lyrics remain to stand out behind the relaxing tempo and give edge to their songs...which makes the whole experience magical".[3] As with Drunken Trees, however, some critics offered more reserved praise: Drowned in Sound gave the album a score of 6/10, writing that "while there are tracks of beauty and wonder, there are duller moments too, where the history that First Aid Kit derive their music from overwhelms their songs, reminding us always of what came before.".[6] The BBC, while praising the album as a whole, also expressed reservations, noting that "songs are, at times, little more than sketches...there’s only ever one element that’s properly illuminated: the vocals."[4]

As of 2 November 2011, the album holds an aggregate score of 70/100 on Metacritic indicating generally positive reviews.[1]

Singles
  • "Ghost Town" (7" vinyl/digital, 27 September 2010)

Credits
  • Klara and Johanna Söderberg - production, vocals, instrumentation, mixing (tracks 1, 3-12), design & artwork
  • Charlie Smoliansky - drums (tracks 1, 3, 5, 8, 10)
  • Benkt Söderberg - mixing (tracks 1, 3-12)
  • Johan Gustavsson - mixing (track 2)
  • Erik Broheden - mastering (tracks 1-11)
  • Henrik Jonsson - mastering (track 12)
gollark: *Apparently*, MEMS switches do actually exist.
gollark: Oh, hey, MEMS relays. That might actually be possible.
gollark: Ah yes, just run the radios on multi-GHz relays.
gollark: Also, efficiency not affecting architecture unless it does is quite apio form.
gollark: Even if you could theoretically implement efficient PowerPC processors, if nobody has then it doesn't really matter unless you want to custom-design CPUs at great cost.

References
  1. "The Big Black And The Blue Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  2. Cooper, Leonie (2010-01-22). "NME review". nme.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  3. White, Lindsey (2010-01-04). "Clash review". clashmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  4. Diver, Mike (2010-02-09). "BBC review". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  5. Milton, Jamie. "musicOMH review". musicomh.com. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  6. Lawrenson, James (2010-01-18). "Drowned in Sound review". drownedinsound.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  7. Hoffman, K. Ross. "AllMusic review". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  8. Hughes, Tom (2010-01-28). "The Guardian review". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  9. Grant, Jess (2009-12-09). "There Goes the Fear review". theregoesthefear.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  10. Grillo, Andrew (2010-01-29). "The Line of Best Fit review". thelineofbestfit.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-09. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
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