Album: First Aid Kit, The Lion's Roar (Wichita)

Simmy Richman Author Biography

Simmy Richman

Simmy Richman is Associate Editor of The Independent on Sunday's New Review magazine. He is also a writer and CD reviews editor for The Independent on Sunday

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Sunday 22 January 2012

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First Aid Kit are Johanna and Klara Soderberg who, in 2008, while still in their teens, posted a video on YouTube of them singing a Fleet Foxes song in the woods near their Stockholm home. Next thing you know they were sharing a stage with the band they'd covered, getting a single produced by Jack White and winning fans from Patti Smith to Conor Oberst.

Why? Because First Aid Kit sing harmonies so close you couldn't run a Band Aid between them. And while their folky 2010 debut showed that off to charming effect, its follow-up – a honky-tonkin' celebration of country music – is an Ikea-warehouse-sized leap forward. Hell, if it doesn't put these girls up on the main stage come festival season, I'll eat my Stetson. For evidence, try "Emmylou". This time it's the record company that has put the video on YouTube. Check it out now. They're the country-soul sisters.

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