First Aid Kit - “King Of The World” (featuring Conor Oberst)
The Swedish pair of sisters otherwise known as First Aid Kit gained some recognition stateswide this past year as the main opening act for Bright Eyes on their lengthy tour behind 2011’s The People’s Key. The buzz that they garnered on that tour put them in a convenient place to release The Lion’s Roar, their sophomore LP, towards the end of last month.
The album as a whole isn’t particularly memorable, but its lush mix of folksy instrumentation and rambling, harmonious vocals provides a solid framework for some seriously great standout tracks. On The Lion’s Roar, Johana and Klara Söderberg save best of the bunch for last; the joyful, exuberant closer “King of the World.”
One of the most interesting things about this pair of sisters is that, as far as I can tell, their music bears very little influence of ‘traditional’ Swedish music. Instead, they derive their sound, both musically and lyrically, from the great American singer/songwriters of the 1960s and 70s. It’s such a convincing pastiche that you almost forget where these girls are from. “King of the World” briefly reminds us of their Scandinavian origins, beginning with a jarringly spoken Swedish count in, but as the song picks up, jangly acoustic guitars and resonant accordion melodies come in, and the listener may as well be at the Newport Folk Festival. Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis handled the production on this record, and he certainly deserves some credit for getting such a rootsy sound.
Indeed, this band’s ties with those Omaha indie folk pioneers must be pretty strong. In addition to touring with them and getting their record produced by 1/3 of them, First Aid Kit actually managed to wrangle Conor Oberst himself into providing a guest spot on The Lion’s Roar. He drops a verse and sings a rousing chorus at the end of “King Of The World” — his well-worn voice contrastingly pleasantly with the angelic harmonies of the Söderberg sisters. After the synthed-out weirdness of The People’s Key, there’s actually something comforting about hearing Conor sing folk music again. Here’s hoping that his influence rubs off on First Aid Kit more in the future… and that their influence rubs off on him somewhat.
