First Aid Kit
The Lion's Roar

And the lion's roar, the lion's roar
is something that I have heard before

The same song, same stars, and same wishes that change shape and, through time and space, are reborn to new life - this time it's about 2 sisters from the forests of cold Sweden, Johanna and Klara Söderberg, guitar, voice, and the dozens of autoharp strings that resonate like lights in the woods at night.

From the songs of the Appalachians and the Carter Family to the Fleet Foxes, passing through Nashville and the end of the world, this second album (first the EP Drunken Trees and the debut The Big Black & The Blue) tries to say in 3 chords and a morning of sun (or rain, it's the same) what a song has always said: that when sadness grips your throat, singing might be the best thing you can do - and while you sing, you find the strength to move forward in the everyday mess - This old routine will drive you mad

Thus there are 10 songs as clean as the air in Sweden can be, perhaps written or inspired or recorded among the fir trees, simple like a tradition you've always known and played on the streets like buskers with half-tousled hair and second-hand jackets, clothes from 15 years ago and the sound that looks to the stars that were before us (King of The World, claps, accordion, bass that calls to dance, and voices that mix).

Songs that stop to think and might recall certain introspections in the vein of Joni Mitchell, with thoughts punctuated by the guitar pick, as in the ballad In The Hearts of Men, where the voice has stopped and you can't speak because there are things that weigh too much and extend like a spiral (I still try to speak up but my voice won't make a sound / and I thought it all over too many times / Well there is no use and the lights are all out) - or in the bitter reflection of This Old Routine, with the voices that stop to watch without understanding; or again in New Year's Eve, where everything is suspended and wrapped in the notes of the organ.

The sisters also find heavenly melodies and textbook pop songs: listen to Blue with tinkling piano and guitar and a background of string keyboard, which could very well come from 40 or 50 years ago. The most beautiful enlightenment remains the single Emmylou, a sort of love act for the country/folk tradition: a melody of angels and a steel guitar that sighs:

Oh the bitter winds are coming in and I'm already missing the summer

...and here is the heart of the album

I'll be your Emmylou and I'll be your June
and you'll be my gram and my Johnny too
you know I'm not asking much of you
just sing little darling sing with me

Sarò la tua Emmylou e la tua June / e tu sarai il mio Gram e il mio Johnny / sai non ti chiedo poi molto / basta, amore, che canti con me - and again wishing it were a new song, a new story, and then the guitar starts to cry again: without words, music, only music