Don’t worry y’all, you didn’t actually just step into a time machine — you’re just listening to the Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit, whose molasses vocals and crooning style are so reminiscent of ’70s artists the likes of Gary Numan and Gram Parsons, it almost seems as if we are listening to the female incarnates of these musicians. (Both of which, coincidentally, are recorded influences for the group.) Fresh off of their new album with the same title, “The Lion’s Roar” is a track that carries the possibility of proving band mates Johanna and Klara Söderberg wise beyond their years.
“The Lion’s Roar,” shows a loyalty to the band’s original folk-esque roots, while at the same time moving into the exploration of a new, darker content matter. Each verse of the song, while not bad, serves more as a pathway to the tantalizing, haunting nature of the chorus which after a few listens become impossible to shake away:
And I’m a goddamn coward, but then again so are you
And the lion’s roar, the lion’s roar
Has me evading and hollering for you
And I never really knew what to do
This refrain pushes the song forward, along with its pounding drumbeat, mystic harmonies, and trickling flute lines, all compiling to leave the listener with a sense of frustration in lost love. Considering the Johanna and Klara Söderberg’s relatively young ages (22 and 19, respectively), the duo have an incredible grasp of the emotions their composition is grappling with — the desperate feeling of grabbing at straws within a failing relationship. The song starts out simply with just vocals and guitar, before gradually building and becoming more and more complicated, possibly analogous of the subject within it. If “The Lion’s Roar” is indicative of their work to come, we can hope to see even more maturity and creative growth from First Aid Kit in the future.