I’m so totally smitten by First Aid Kit’s new album that I gushed all over it at 10listens.com:
There’s something uncanny about The Lion’s Roar from the very beginning, when there’s nothing more than minor-key acoustic guitar and a will-o’-the-wisp flickering between the trees. A tender yet hardened young woman sets the scene (”The pale morning sings/ of forgotten things”), and the air’s already thick with mythology. It’s the feeling you get when you look to the west- so beautiful it’s profoundly unsettling, and so profoundly unsettling it’s beautiful. There’s witchery afoot, and slavery, and plagues. Can’t blame us too much for being such goddamn cowards and fools, but God damn us anyway. And while God’s at it, God can damn itself for taking so much of our innocence before we could muster enough courage and wisdom to fill the void.
