First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar (Vinyl LP, CD)

Weirdly enough I checked out the video to this song yesterday on the recommendation of a Swedish friend of mine, and then these turned up at the office today. It's a pretty slickly produced pastoral pop effort from these spooky-looking sisters, who've already caught the attention of Jack “how old are you?” White. Instrumentally it's bringing to mind Okkervil River, but the girls' voices bring it into folkier territory than that band (in places it sounds quite Mumford & Sons-esque - in fact if you like those guys I can pretty much guarantee this song'll hit the spot), and there's (thankfully) less reliance on Americana cliches. There's some close vocal harmonies on here that are really affecting too. On the flip we've got a more low-key Fleet Foxes-meets-Laura Marling type number that's also mega pleasant, with some sweeping strings introduced halfway through to good effect. However while their voices are undeniably pretty and the harmonies are striking, there's very little here to set them apart as anything particularly special. Let's hope they prove me wrong when they put out a full-length.