First Aid Kit Cover “Gloomy Sunday”

Sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, of Swedish duo First Aid Kit, have turned in a wide range of excellent covers over the past few years — from Fleet Foxes to Buffy Sainte-Marie with Jack White to (my personal favorite) Fever Ray’s “When I Grow Up.”. Their latest might be the most ambitious yet: “Gloomy Sunday,” Rezső Seress’ so-called “suicide song,” which was made most famous by Billie Holiday in 1941 and, more recently, Bjork, who performed the dirge at a memorial service for her late friend/collaborator Alexander McQueen last year. First Aid Kit’s take, shown in the live video above from a Stockholm gig last month, brings harmony vocals to the table with hauntingly beautiful results. A fine addition to the canon of show-stopping versions of perhaps the saddest, loneliest composition to date.