First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

First Aid Kit - Swedish siblings Clara and Johanna Söderberg graduate from dewy, baby-faced teen folk prodigies to breakout indie Americana queens with their much buzzed sophomore album...could it really be five years since the then Söderbergs, then just 14 and 17 years old, recorded their debut EP Drunken Trees? // Release: The Lion's Roar (January 24) // Sounds like: Maybe it's the shared genes (see: The Watson Twins), but rarely do two voices in harmony join with such perfect, effortless and loose-limbed precision...the sisters move confidently from the bedroom acoustic lo-fi gems of their debut The Big Black and the Blue to a richly tailored country/rock sound thanks to a full band (which includes their dad on bass), and the attuned ears of Bright Eyes producer and Monsters of Folk-ie Mike Mogis...

Quote: "I can say that it all sort of started when I heard Bright Eyes when I was 12, and I was like, “Well, OK, what did Conor Oberst listen to when he wrote this music? What has inspired him?” And through that [process] I found Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash and all those amazing musicians." - Klara Söderberg // What we like: title track shows what we're in for: timeless barstool twang and brilliant Indigo-styled vocal harmonies bumping up against alt-folk strains, all tossed into a 70's retro hopper...the marvelous tribute track "Emmylou" is one of Lion's best, a shuffling classic of entwined vocal splendor and Mogis and company's stirring, perfectly modulated instrumental backing: “I’ll be your Emmylou, I’ll be your June, if you’ll be my Gram, and my Johnny, too" -- just perfect.

First Aid Kit - "Emmylou" (from The Lion's Roar)

First Aid Kit - "To A Poet" (from The Lion's Roar)

Stream the full album at NPR