First Aid Kit: The Lion's Roar [WICHITA]

Why you'll love it

This Wichita pressing is 180g vinyl in a gatefold with lyrics and a download card. The album went straight to No. 1 in Sweden, won album of the year at the Grammis, and Rolling Stone named "Emmylou" one of the 100 best songs of the 2010s.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Lyrics included
• Download card included

About the album

Two sisters from Stockholm singing about Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris is not the most obvious route to the top of the Swedish charts, but Klara and Johanna Söderberg made it look easy. For their second album they went to Omaha's Mike Mogis, who produced, engineered and mixed it and played everything from pedal steel to hammer dulcimer.

The harmonies are the main event, the bell-like sibling blend The Independent praised, and the songs give them plenty of room. The title song builds from a whisper to a gallop, "Emmylou" turns a love song into a tribute to the great duet partners of country music, and "Blue" and "This Old Routine" show off their storytelling. Nate Walcott arranges the strings, and Conor Oberst and The Felice Brothers crash the party on the rollicking closer "King of the World."

The Guardian called it "a bigger, better record than their debut," and it has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide. Video gamers know it too: the title song is the main theme of The Long Dark, and "I Found a Way" turns up in Life Is Strange 2, so a whole generation first heard Swedish folk while trying not to freeze.

Also at Kops: more First Aid Kit on vinyl · browse Folk

Tracklist

Listen

On Wichita (cat# WEBB320LP), the 2012 album.