First Aid Kit (SWE)
When it comes to First Aid Kit, it's difficult to overuse the word "lovely". Songs by the two Swedish sisters, Johanna and Klara, are airy, melancholic and bright like the Midsummer night in the Nordic countries. The girls are pretty as a picture and enviably young (Johanna and Klara were born in 1990 and 1993, respectively), but their music is astonishingly mature and stylish pop with folk influences, echoing a timeless sigh from the days when music itself was very young.
First Aid Kit has often been compared to Fleet Foxes and Bright Eyes, and the guitarist with the latter, Mike Mogis, actually produced the duo's second album The Lion's Roar that was released in January. It went straight to Number 1 in the Swedish charts, which is only fair – songs like Emmylou or Lion's Roar are just too great to be forgotten. Add to that Johanna's and Klara's perfectly harmonious voices backed up by brilliant acoustic arrangements, and the end result is fragile yet powerful, moving yet exhilarating. Come come, you know you could use a moment of peace in the middle of festival mayhem!
