Non - Narrative Illustration - Choice 4: First Aid Kid - Stay Gold

First Aid Kit 

---------

Stay Gold 

Background on artist 
First Aid Kit are a Swedish Folk duo and they became known from YouTube when they covered Fleet Foxes ''Tiger Mountain Peasant Song'' this then spread their name across the internet. Their country style songs has achieved them world wide fame along with their harmonious singing. 

Stay Gold
This album was released on June 6th 2014 and a Swedish TV interview states that this album is based around their own lives more than their other albums. To create a more fulfilling sounds to their album they have a 13 piece orchestra which they had never used before producing this and had always been limited to 3 people on stage.

Lyrics

My Silver Lining-
This song is about searching for a reason to keep going and that good always comes with the bad. The duo stated in an interview that they wanted to create a song which was dark but also uplifting. The music also speaks to the listener. The use of violins and acoustic guitar brings out the beautiful voices of the duo wonderfully. 

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/firstaidkit/mysilverlining.html
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/03/first-aid-kit-announces-new-album-stay-gold-releas.html
http://thekey.xpn.org/2014/04/02/first-aid-kit-embark-on-a-quest-for-clarity-and-meaning-on-new-song-my-silver-lining/


Master Pretender-
This song is about someone going through life thinking of herself as a strong person when in reality life is making her doubt herself. She is ''pretending'' her way through life and she is just trying to find a silver lining within everything. 

http://rock.genius.com/First-aid-kit-my-silver-lining-lyrics
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/firstaidkit/masterpretender.html

Stay Gold -
This song symbolises that nothing lasts forever and things will never be what they seem and you just have to take life as it comes. There will always bad times and good times, you just have to 'stay gold'. I like the story behind this song as it's emotional and understandable and luckily I get imagery also. 

http://rock.genius.com/First-aid-kit-stay-gold-lyrics
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/firstaidkit/staygold.html

Cedar Lane-
This song is about a girl who suffers from sleepless nights and she dwells on mistakes from the past. Her relationship is represented by a Cedar Tree as they are large and long living and this what she dreams one day it will be like. She wishes that they could forget all the bad stuff and focus on the things that matter but she knows deep down it's over but she wants them back. She made the wrong decision and she wishes she could just go back and change it.

http://rock.genius.com/First-aid-kit-cedar-lane-lyrics
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/firstaidkit/cedarlane.html

I am very fond of the artwork for the album cover as it is very indie and unique and I like the use of colours and how look washed out and the transparency of the images also give a really nice effect.

I have decided now that because not all of the songs on the albums were giving me visual spikes or sticking out from the rest from now on I will only write about the songs that are relevant, I am still going to research and listen to the whole album but only certain songs will make it into the post. This will also save time and reading for my viewers.