Wednesday, April 11, 2012

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

Sweden. A country that offers the worst and best of mankind. A country that gives us the artificial fakeness of Abba, Ace of Base and Ikea but has people who sound as authentic as possible. We talked a lot on these pages already of the genius of The Tallest Man on Earth. A man with a sound and voice straight out of the American hinterlands and not at all from his native Scandinavian homeland. Here now is another example in the two young ladies who are First Aid Kid.
They first came into the public’s eye and ears with a beautiful woodland rendition of a Fleet Foxes’ song. The band liked it so much they invited them on stage and from there on things took off. After a good first album comes the brilliant “The Lion’s Roar”. The voices sound like they come straight from Nashville and the songwriting is equally on par. With the help from Conor Oberst they also get well deserved indie-cred on the final song. The singles ‘Lion’s Roar’ is great and the follow-up ‘Emmylou’ places them exactly where they should be, in the ranks of Harris and June Carter. It’s a beautiful ode to country music love.
Sweden, please give us more.



Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Dangerous Summer - War Paint

The song 'No One's Gonna Need You More' has found its way onto my playlist and it made me get the album. Good luck for me! They recorded the song 11 times in slightly different ways. OK, that was a joke but it serves a point. There is nothing wrong with the songs, the singing and the instrumentation. It's urgent, tight and it rocks but it is all sung in the same heartwrenching way in the same speed that it really makes you wonder if the singer means all of it. Any song could be a single because they are all equally well made, but it get's boring after a few songs. You keep hoping there will be more but unfortunately there is no change.