First Aid Kit : The Lion's Roar

First Aid Kit often get compared to Fleet Foxes, perhaps due to them getting their big break via their YouTube cover of Tiger Mountain Peasant Song. Aside from I Found A Way having the same romantic urgency and wavering flutes of Your Protector, Johanna and Klara Soderber’s assured second album cementstheir sound as something quite different - younger, subtler and leaning a lotcloser to traditional country music.

The Lion’s Roar may start with its strongest song, but there are plenty ofhighlights throughout. The Swedish sisters’ delicate harmonising adds to the earthy romanticism of the music and lyrics, though it’s often anchored by a melancholy and weariness.

Blue observes the sadness of another with a detached manner and plucky backing music, though it’s harder to escapethe introverted desolation of the following tracks, This Old Routine and To A Poet. Things wind down in tempo as the album reaches its end, at which point Conor Oberst steps in to join them on the joyful, upbeat closer, King Of The World. Just like the rest of the album – well, apart from the sappy Emmylou and its cloying rollcall of musical heroes – it’s beautifully judged andexpertly executed.

BY CHRIS GIRDLER

Best Track: The Lion’s Roar

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