CD Reviews
The Lion’s Roar is the Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes)-produced sophomore album from Swedish duo First Aid Kit — and it’s a stunner. Iron-lunged sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg have a serious soft spot for ’70s psych rock, Fleet Foxes-style indie folk and heartland Americana, as evidenced by their honeyed harmonies and dreamy, reverb-drenched, Polaroid soundscapes. The songs here are big, bold, beautiful showpieces for the Söderbergs’ striking vocal interplay — particularly the haunting, driving title track, the soaring, cinematic In the Hearts of Men and the utterly heartbreaking This Old Routine, which has a world-weariness that belies its creators’ years (Johanna and Klara are barely in their 20s). The album’s lighter moments are winners, too; Emmylou is a slice of all-American apple pie, and the earworm chorus — "I’ll be your Emmylou, and I’ll be your June/You’ll be my Gram and my Johnny, too" — is sweet without being twee. This is one of the prettiest albums you’ll hear all year — and one of the most sincere, too.
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