First Aid Kit is made up of sisters Klara Söderberg and Johanna Söderberg from Sweden. Their sound is fundamentally similar to that of Fleet Foxes as they create folk songs with much more life and enthusiasm. Sprawling acoustic guitars, upbeat drums and pianos, and flutes and horns accompany the girls on much of their new LP entitled The Lion's Roar. First Aid Kit have surely matured not only with their song writing abilities but also with their sound as a whole. The production has gotten better too as the young and talented Mike Mogis has taken over at the controls. His background suits the band well as he has engineered and produced albums by M. Ward, Sea Wolf, and Pete Yorn, all of which share a similarity in their musical styles.
The title track and first single off the LP is, in my opinion, the perfect way of describing what these girls should and do sound like. They tell haunting stories within their lyrics while keeping up an edgy, acoustic guitar progression that keeps your mind wrapped up in the warmth of the sound. The girls harmonize on this track better then ever thanks to Mogis. On top of guitars and drums, Mogis brought in some flutes to lay the track down and give it a concrete foundation to build on. The song lyrics speak of religious themes, "The Lion's Roar" symbolizing Jesus Christ's leading. The girls seem to disagree with the church's words of direction and go against the sayings of the bible. These are very harsh waters they are playing in but I think that edginess is exactly what they needed to explore on their second LP. I give First Aid Kit lots of respect for coming out and using mature themes in this and each other song on their new album, I guess we can stop saying that they are just simply the "little sister to Fleet Foxes". Did I mention how incredibly catchy this song is?
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