First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit launched their career with a novel YouTube oddity that’s received almost 3 million hits. Two teenage sisters in matching flannel covered Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” from a forest in their Swedish homeland. The second record from the woodsy-folksy sister act begins in a similar fashion with its title track: one guitar, plus Johanna Söderberg’s sometimes-melancholy, sometimes-uplifting vocals at the fore. By the end of the song, prominent drums, woodwinds and heavy piano chords add to the initial simplicity of the acoustic guitar, setting the stage for a richer sound on First Aid Kit’s sophomore album.

The second and strongest track, “Emmylou,” starts off with a slide guitar line that could come straight off a Trace Adkins single, and its pairing with Johanna’s distinctly un-Southern vocals presents an initial cognitive dissonance. But by the opening line of the chorus, they issue the statement of intent for their fusion of Swedish and American countrysides and channeling of American greats: “I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June/ if you’ll be my Gram and my Johnny, too.”

After “Emmylou,” the album delves into deeper, darker themes of death and lost love with only hints of optimism sprinkled throughout. The album ends on a decisively up-beat note with “King of the World,” which features the members of Bright Eyes on catchy accordion and trumpet lines, plus an entire verse from Conor Oberst. The song’s situation as the final track is superb; it leaves a peachy aftertaste after an enduring melancholy and summarizes the sentiment, “I’m nobody’s baby/ I’m everybody’s girl/ I’m the queen of nothing/ I’m the king of the world.”

The video for “Ghost Town,” a single from First Aid Kit’s debut, shows the duo walking through a field of tall grass in plain white dresses. The album insert for The Lion’s Roar shows the sisters donning colorful hippy dresses, an apt metaphor for their progression to a more full-bodied sound. Amid the crowded crop of folk revivalists, First Aid Kit sing sweet enough to capture an admittedly overstimulated audience.

—Ted Phillips