As a precursor to their delightful second album, First Aid Kit will release the title track ‘The Lion’s Roar’ on limited 7” and digital formats. As well as supporting the inimitable Lykke Li in the UK (and the US), the Söderberg sisters will return for a series of very special shows In Europe in  Novemeber / December .

Wherever First Aid Kit play they gather fans with their gutsy and could-hear-a-pin-drop performances. They recently dumbfounded Patti Smith at the Polar Prize in Stockholm with one such turn http://www.tv4play.se/Arkiv/Blandat?title=first_aid_kit_-_dancing_barefo.... They also found time to contribute as part of a collaborative charity effort, with the Gift Horse Project and Manimal Vinyl to record a school-friendly cover of the White Stripes ‘We’re Going to Be Friends’ alongside Bright Eyes for a compilation called Cool for School: For the Benefit of the Lunchbox Fund - http://pitchfork.com/news/44192-bright-eyes-cover-the-white-stripes.

First Aid Kit’s first American-recorded album, The Lion’s Roar is due out 23 January 2012 and juxtaposes sadness and beauty in the best traditions of folk and country music. They even cite the Louvin Brothers cheerfully brutal version of the old murder ballad ‘Knoxville Girl’ as the perfect example of the sweet and sour they adore. And this carefully constructed collection deftly succeeds in setting references to their home town of Stockholm and long dark Scandinavian winters against an unforced backdrop of country-rock swing.  

The Lion’s Roar, recorded in Omaha by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, millions more), is a full band record. The girls’ father Benkt takes the bass, Mattias Bergqvist drums, while Mogis and Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes and a cast of Omaha-based musicians round out the sound. From the dynamic title track onwards, it’s more honky-tonk than campfire, and no less affecting for that.

Initially signed in 2008 by Rabid Records, the label run by The Knife (the girls later signed to Wichita), First Aid Kit have gone from faraway teenage fans covering Fleet Foxes for fun to recording a single of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s ‘Universal Soldier’ with Jack White at his request and in his Nashville, TN Third Man studio. “I think of it now as like a dream, too good to be true,” says Johanna of the session, happily and hurriedly squeezed into last autumn’s tour schedule.

Those dreams are set to continue and grow based on the strength of this second, most accomplished album. 2012 will be their year.