First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar

If 2010's The Big Black & The Blue marked their initial emergence from the backwoods of Stockholm from the resonant echoes of their now notorious Fleet Foxes cover, it's with The Lion’s Roar that the Söderberg sisters reveal their American-inspired full band ambition. Working in Omaha, Nebraska with Mike Mogis, First Aid Kit find themselves able to actualise the sound of their favourite American country records, but with the perfect sombreness of outsiders.

Their influences are tightly knit and proudly adorned, but what is most interesting is their inflection, interpreting this sound in their own way. This charm is regretfully absent when lifting straight from their heroes, as on the disappointing King Of The World, co-written with and featuring Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, complete with Tilly and the Wall-esque exclamations and handclaps, and Ring Of Fire’s Mexican trumpets to boot. Their best tracks, like I Found A Way, allow the teenage sisters' close natural harmonies to flood from the speakers.